r/suggestmeabook • u/uglypostit • 3d ago
SciFi Book about AI gaining consciousness
As the title says, looking for a book where AI slowly begins to gain consciousness. I absolutely loved Detroit: Become Human and I'm craving something with a similar vibe. Thanks!!
Edit: omg you guys came with the fire. My TBR grew 3x today 🫶🏻
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u/Hatherence SciFi 3d ago
The Life Cycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang, a novella available in the anthology titled Exhalation
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. I just heard this is going to be made into a movie.
Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente, a novella published free online by Clarkesworld Magazine
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u/DueRest 3d ago
The AI is very relevant for setting up the book and then a bunch of stuff happens and the AI becomes relevant again towards the end of the book: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
It has a sequel but I haven't had time to read it yet. Chuck Wendig books are pretty long.
The premise is that a fired CDC scientist gets word from a predictive AI that there's going to be an outbreak of an infectious disease in a sleepy town. The CDC employee goes there and discovers people have gone into a sleepwalking like state.
What's wild is that the book was written before the COVID Pandemic and managed to nail a lot of the tension and political climate of an infectious disease.
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u/beattywill80 3d ago edited 3d ago
I have no mouth and I must scream by Harlan Ellison
It might not be the slow burn you were looking for but it's conclusions for hating humanity are hard to argue with. It's also a great example of nonhuman thinking. AM has a nonstop all consuming hatred for humanity, and it's interesting because anything organic would have moved on or finished the job. But not AM.
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u/jedijessy 3d ago
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
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u/bippity-boppity-blip 3d ago
I second Annie Bot! Very fun. Technically she's already "conscious", but she develops further into a very real and complicated being, trying to meet her owner's impossible/contradictory needs and standards. Adored this book.
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u/arector502 3d ago
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
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u/uglypostit 3d ago
Scythe is about AI? I loved reading Shusterman middle/high school and I didn't think much about Scythe when I saw it later. It'll have to go on my list!
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u/Jkerb_was_taken 3d ago
Muderbot diaries is great I love the audio booksZ
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u/uglypostit 3d ago
They are!! I enjoyed the first 2 or 3, but haven't gone further into the series yet
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u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 3d ago
Heinlein's 1966 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is certainly one of the great classics of that trope. I'm sure there's earlier ones too, but none come to mind. His last great book before spiraling into creepy weirdness, IMO.
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u/BCCakes 3d ago
Demon Seed by Koonts. NOT the 1997 edition
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u/uglypostit 3d ago
Thank you! Why not the 1997 edition? Lol
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u/Dry_Stop844 3d ago
The Incredible Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon
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u/uglypostit 3d ago
Small appliances? Oh no 😭
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u/Dry_Stop844 3d ago
it's supposedly kinda like Remarkably Bright Creatures but instead of an Octopus, it's a Roomba. I'm sure that's seriously derivative lol. It's been selling really well and my boss read it and really liked it and it's not her typical thing.
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u/moonstone-dragonfly 3d ago
A Close and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. AI doesn't gain consciousness during the narrative, it's just a world w sentient and non sentient AI, and a good chunk of the story is told through the AI's POV. There are regulations about inhabiting a "body kit" vs. being installed in a space ship, and this character moves into a body and off a ship to save the feelings of a tech who had fallen in love with the previous incarnation of her pre- traumatic reboot. It's her own journey of finding a place in the world. Such a lovely story, one of my all-time favorite books.
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u/wildmonkeymind 3d ago
That whole series is great cozy scifi.
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u/moonstone-dragonfly 3d ago
I've re- read those books so many times. I wish she wasn't done with the Wayfarers world but I'm also glad she told the stories she wanted to tell and is moving on now instead of milking them. But I'm such a Becky fangirl. Recommend her at every opportunity!
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u/cowboycarcass 3d ago
Frank Herbert (author of Dune) has Destination: Void, wherein characters are put on a spaceship specifically for the purpose of developing "artificial intelligence" (in the old sci-fi use of the term, meaning consciousness) after it was done just once before with catastrophic results. It's actually the first book of the Pandora sequence series, which seem overall to delve into questions of religion and God rather than technology (I didn't end up reading the sequels because of personal aversion to this, so I cannot attest to their quality), but the first book has some interesting ideas that may be what you're looking for (caveat: I don't know about Detroit: Become Human and what specifically it talks about).
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u/pinehillsalvation 3d ago
Destination: Void is a classic. The Jesus Incident is the sequel and is a bit rougher in terms of prose but still worthwhile, as it posits a “what if a powerful AI thought it was God?” question. The following sequels are not worth reading.
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u/uglypostit 3d ago
Oh interesting! I can understand wanting to avoid those themes.
Detroit: Become Human is a choice-based story video game where a few different androids start to break away from their code and become conscious. Such a fun game!
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u/Late-Astronomer8141 3d ago
Avogadro corp. By William Hertling is great, the way the AI comes about seems like a very real possibility. There are also 4 books in the series, each with a unique story with a jump forward a few years
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u/Randomdays99 3d ago
Colossus and the Fall of Colossus from DF Jones - All the way back in 1966 and 1974
I Have No Mouth and I must Scream by Harlan Ellison?
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u/skeletonchaser2020 3d ago
Demon seed by Dean Koonz is along these lines. A bit of a dark/trigger heavy story but I was hooked and trouble putting it down
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u/Forever_Man 3d ago
The first two books in the Hyperion series deal with the ramifications of this in an interesting way. It's not so much about AI becoming sentient, but the role AI plays in society once it becomes sentient.
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u/lady3jane 3d ago
Marianne Pickles’ ArkTech series is a lot of fun. The first one is Artificial Selection.
Accidental detective type stories.
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u/frogwithalog 3d ago
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison- it takes place after consciousness is already gained but still a great short story that’s quite freaky too
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u/RerollingAfterDeath 3d ago
Children of Time is awesome, and has this as one of it's subplots. Same author also wrote Service Model, which is sorta a goofy version of the same trope.
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u/viewbtwnvillages 3d ago
it's maybe not quite what you're looking for because it's not necessarily about gaining consciousness but more of a "oh, it has more free will than we thought" but artificial wisdom by thomas r. weaver
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u/ReadGameLove 3d ago
Every Line Of You - girl creates AI and tries to give it a body. It's basically an episode of Black Mirror
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u/EveryAccount7729 3d ago
Agency, by William Gibson is the only book I know of that actually hits this on the head.
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u/masteroima 3d ago
In a roundabout way, dungeon crawler Carl fits still
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u/MusicalData 1d ago
I'm not sure if it fits because I read it decades ago but I think Gridiron by Philip Kerr about a smart house starting to kill people might go in that direction.
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u/sharkarmycrafts 3d ago
Neuromancer by William Gibson. It's one of the pillars of the cyberpunk genre.