So apparently we've reached the point where before buying a book I have to look up whether it was written with/by AI. I want to scream.

I'll first detail my review from BEFORE I knew confirmed that the book was written with AI. I'll post it just as I wrote it in my notes. Than I'll add another word or two for the AI slop.

Idk what to think about this book. The concept was an interesting one, the execution was mediocre at best. So many ethical questions about the tower not explored. Normally I love character studies but this concept would have benefited from leaning further into a sci-fi or dystopia/utopia type story. For example the architect Sara Machina does not like or support the idea of the power but the book never really explores why except for whether criminals deserve luxury or not. Why is it never about the potential risks? For example luxury does not change habit, brain conditions etc. Some people hurt others for fun, for power. Rape as an example of that was a brief topic in this book but connected so weirdly into the whole story. The tower feels like it should have been so much more important than it was. The characters... I'm sorry but I did not care. Or better say, I would have cared if there actually was more substance to the story around them. The concepts of language were interesting and so were some of the AI bits but none of it was explored deeply enough. Overall this book felt weirdly hollow and empty. It's like the author never fully finished the draft of the story and just went straight in. It tries to feel human but it just fails? Hard to explain but really, it failed to resonate with me so I will sadly have to give it a 2/5 star rating.

Okay and now... I read an article from the Guardian about this book and author. I'll put a quote: "But the book also grabbed attention because Qudan said that part of it – 5% was the figure given, though she now says that was only an approximation – was written using artificial intelligence. This, she tells me, comprised parts of the novel which are presented as a character’s exchange with ChatGPT. But Qudan also 'gained a lot of inspiration' for the novel through 'exchanges with AI and from the realisation that it can reflect human thought processes in interesting ways'. Qudan’s use of AI, in other words, seeks not to deceive the reader but to help us to see its effects." Having read this made me depressed because there should have been a disclaimer on that. I understand that the book was not technically written by AI but I don't want to read anything supported by AI and I do end up feeling deceived somehow. Sorry but this drops my rating down to 1/5 stars.