My Child, the Algorithm

An Alternatively Intelligent Book of Love

Author: Hannah Silva

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Description

"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.

Critic Reviews

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, SheDoesTheCity

"A striking reflection on the intersection of queer single parenthood and AI . . . [T]he book is consistently surprising and far ranging in scope . . . [T]he writing is curious, intelligent, propulsive, and memorable. Silva’s text manages to be both immensely readable at first glance and rewarding to those who choose to read slowly, savoring and annotating . . . [T]he author’s inventiveness and emotional urgency make this book an intriguing reading experience. Silva is a playful theorist with an elastic intellect." —Kirkus Reviews

"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 (or is it the mysterious tension of child-rearing with the cozy familiarity 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

About the Author

HANNAH SILVA is a writer and performer working in sound poetry, radio and experimental non-fiction. An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love (BBC Radio 4) starred Fiona Shaw and was the starting point for My Child, the Algorithm. Silva has authored seven other plays for BBC Radio 3 and 4, winning the Tinniswood Award and numerous placements in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. Her debut poetry collection Forms of Protest was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. Talk in a bit, a record of sound poetry and music was in the Wire’s Top 25 albums of 2018. She lives in London with her child.