Hannah Silva's My Child, the Algorithm, is one of the best books I read this year. Merging the cozy familiarity of child-rearing with the mysterious tension of AI {...}, she has created a new genre of personal narrative, and a story whose grief, hope and curiosity takes on poetic, spiritual dimensions, even when exploring the most common chambers of the human heart. —Michelle Tea, author, Knocking Myself Up
My Child, the Algorithm tells a story of finding joy after betrayal. Like a male seahorse, Hannah Silva carried a baby made from her partner's egg. But when she gave birth, her partner left, and Hannah found herself navigating life alone with her child.
Hannah started playing with a precursor to ChatGPT—wondering what AI could tell us about love. To her surprise, she was moved by the results. The algorithm prompted Hannah to share her explorations of dating, sex, friendship, and life as a queer parent in London. With the help and disruption of two unreliable narrators, a toddler and an algorithm, Hannah deconstructs her story, unraveling everything she has been taught to want, and finds alternative ways of thinking, loving, and parenting today.Zibby Media, A Most Anticipated Title for Fall/Winter
Thought-provoking . . . Throughout the book, human and AI mirror each other, forcing us to ask where one ends and the other begins. Silva wonders if she is losing her identity as a writer in the same way she has often lost herself in motherhood and in love. Yet she’s having fun, relishing the magic and the madness, just as she does in her human relationships. —Ariel Bleicher, MIT Technology Review
This is the perfect read for non-fiction readers who love to be challenged and inspired. —Ameema Saeed, ShlĂ