Lenox — Stockbridge author Joan Cohen will read from her newly released book “The Deepfake” this Saturday, May 4, at The Bookstore in Lenox. The novel, published by She Writes Press, a hybrid publisher of exclusively woman writers, engages with ethical questions around the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.), among other things.
Cohen, who turned to writing after a long career in sales and marketing, says she didn’t know any more about A.I. than anyone who reads the newspapers. A.I. technologies weren’t even around when she worked selling gigantic computers for Hewlett Packard, but she has long been interested in the topic. “I’ve just been struck by how much it’s a part of our lives.” She is amazed at how little even smart, educated people think they need to worry about A.I. “One person said to me kind of cavalierly, ‘I really don’t understand it,’ so I don’t pay any attention,” she relayed.
Cohen, on the other hand, is especially worried about the potentially “very serious ramifications” of the use of A.I. in this election year. “It used to be that attempts of deepfakes were kind of crude and you could tell, especially if you knew what to look for, but progress has been just scary.” In addition to silo news sources where everyone can confirm the opinions they already have, these artificially altered images or words exacerbate the phenomenon that reality doesn’t matter and “perception is everything.” Cohen adds, “Thinking is hard work.”
The protagonist of “The Deepfake,” 34-year-old Sylvie, works for an A.I. firm, but “they’re not doing anything evil,” says Cohen. “Having A.I. on the factory floor makes the process of distributing goods go better.” So Sylvie is well versed in all the beneficial applications of A.I. But when Sylvie’s new romantic interest “takes issue with what she’s doing,” and when she gets caught in the middle of shady dealings at the company, people-pleasing Sylvie is forced to question her line of work.
When Cohen started writing her novel a few years ago, she couldn’t find anything about A.I. that wasn’t nonfiction or speculative fiction. “You know, robots and terminators and things. I thought that was really strange. Now I see that there are other novels that incorporate A.I., which we should be thinking about.”
When she writes, Cohen is interested is engaging with moral or philosophical issues, and fiction serves as a compelling vehicle for that. “Here I am at this advanced age, and I still don’t know the answers to questions I thought about when I was in college,” Cohen shares, “but I will want my characters to think about them, and grapple with them, and argue different sides.” And then, perhaps, her readers will too. “People think about things in fiction,” says Cohen. “It reaches them at an emotional level.” If you put people in a situation, they are “wrapped up in what happens.”
But Cohen doesn’t see “The Deepfake” as solely a vehicle to explore A.I. issues. “From a marketing perspective, that’s what everybody latches onto.” However, the action-packed corporate thriller with sub-plots full of family drama is at heart about the character of Sylvie.
Someone Cohen worked with once said to her, “You’re not going to be successful in sales because you’re too nice.” She learned to be tougher, but “never forgot the perception that you can be too nice to be successful in business. Young women are raised differently now, but when I was growing up, women were expected to smile more. It’s ridiculous.”
Kirkus Reviews writes of “The Deepfake,” “readers will easily relate to and root for a woman breaking free of the good-girl mold to find new and genuine purpose.” It also explores the consequences of a sexual assault.
The novel is Cohen’s second. Her first, “Land of Last Chances” (2019), also explored some important but under-the-radar issues: pregnancy late in life, and Alzheimer’s, which Cohen was grappling with in her own family, and which will affect “a huge proportion of the population in their 80s.” Echoing her thoughts on A.I., Cohen explains, “I was distressed how little people knew about Alzheimer’s and how sure they were that it wasn’t going to happen to them or their family members.”
Cohen’s reading at The Bookstore and Get Lit Wine Bar is May 4 at 4 p.m.
