"Culpability" by Bruce Holsinger

I'm a reader, and I typically have one book on my Kindle, an audio book for when I'm in the car or doing chores, and sometimes even a real book to read by the pool or when tech reading devices won't suffice.

So, it's no surprise that I happened upon Bruce Holsinger’s Culpability. A 2025 release, this book is about what happens with the family who owns an AI-powered car that is involved in a crash. It is very current conceptually, and it easily drew me in from the AI/tech standpoint alone. The book had elements of artificial intelligence in many places (more than just this car), and it definitely aroused (purposely, for sure) the questions of ethics and responsibility. "Computational morality." Culpability... you could say.

Given the fact that the settings for the story are in and around the Chesapeake Bay and DC area, where I am from, there was an added pull to the book for me. A fairly quick read, it draws you in, in many ways. Elements that would have been seen as science-fiction a decade or two ago (ex: self driving cars, drones, heavy tech-saturation in everyday life), it feels a lot more like every day 2026. Especially when you are reading the book as someone who uses Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Alexa, Siri, a Roomba, and so on.

The book gives you a lot to think about in this burgeoning world of tech innovation and AI. Especially when it comes to responsibility. Namely, who IS responsible and where exactly is that line? Not to mention, with some of these new systems, "smart devices," and "intelligent machines" out there, it somewhat begs the question of "how safe is safe enough?"

All of this makes it "not quite a beach read!" But a good read, indeed.

It left me thinking about AI policies (both for schools [given I'm a teacher] and for life, especially with our teens and preteens--but adults as well). It made me think about the iGeneration over the last 19 years with all of this tech at our disposal and what is it doing to our social side of life, our anxiety levels, our distractability, our cultural fiber. We are nearly at 2 decades of this human experiment since the iPhone's inception in 2007. I know my life is more distracted for sure! We all are enmeshed in this tech lifestyle, surrounded by these devices and systems, often putting the cart before the horse. Dependent on them yet not fully understanding the depth and breadth of how they fully impact us or how reliant we are on them. 

All of which, as with many things in life, showcases that life is not black or white... but the gray that lies between.

The last two years I've been teaching my 4th and 5th graders about machine learning and how it works. How it is reliant on the data sets that are used to train them, and how the way it works is solely dependent on the data that trains them. And there in lies the problem because we don't often have a full disclosure on what exactly the training sources are/were... and we don't know the level of bias that could be built in. 

Ethics and morality are a whole next-level conversation! My adult daughter has told me she's very glad she grew up and went to school in an era after AI. 

Culpability is a good read that definitely leaves you thinking a lot about the world in which we live. It left me thinking about the quote that often comes with AI these days: "Today's AI is the worst you will ever experience." Why? Because it is always growing, advancing, and improving--for better or for worse. AI certainly is faster and far more advanced now than the November 2022 release of ChatGPT. AI also is frequently now included and built into existing platforms (both in and out of education) and that inclusion has exploded. No one sees that stopping anytime soon. 

So....what are the governing policies going to be? What are the implications? The ramifications if anything goes wrong? Are we working with ethics, morality, and responsibility as we are building up and improving these systems (and inventing new ones). What is the culpability of all parties involved? All good questions to ask!

Images from https://www.amazon.com/Culpability-Novel-Bruce-Holsinger/dp/1954118961, https://itchronicles.com/artificial-intelligence/where-is-ai-used-today/, and https://techvidvan.com/tutorials/artificial-intelligence-applications/