Graphic Novel Review – Intelligences Artificielles – Miroirs de nos vies

First Published: 2019
Author: Fibre Tigre, Arnold Zéphir
Illustrator: Héloise Chochois
Language: French
Genre: Dystopian / creative nonfiction
My rating: 4/5

Intelligences Artificielles – Miroirs de nos vies (Artificial Intelligences – Mirrors of our lives) tell the story of two people who create an AI robot called Yurie.

The story is set in the near future. At the very beginning, Yurie competes in a poetry improvisation TV Show and wins over the judges until they realise it’s an AI.

The creators then recount the creation of Yurie, bringing to the surface our fantasies and fears surrounding the technology.

I’m not 100% sure where to categorise this in terms of literary genre. It’s part fiction, part creative nonfiction… Having read this graphic novel and a few others, I find the medium well-suited to understanding complex topics more quickly.

For example, this graphic novel tackles the topic of artificial intelligence. It covers many aspects, including copyright, privacy, replacing the workforce…

It addresses the topic in a simple but amusing way. After reading it, I felt I knew a little bit more about how AIs work. However, I am still no expert.

It is a little hard to grow attached to the characters as the story progresses at such a speed. And their character arcs seem to stagnate.

The two programmers built Yurie as an experiment, although they perhaps pushed ethical boundaries. They respond to what they want without censoring. They keep developing AI, hoping the public will suddenly realise that it isn’t what they think it is. In the story, many people believe Yurie is real, that she can think and feel for herself. This is disproved at the end when Yurie enters a presidential campaign.

Through Yurie, the programmers show how dangerous an AI could be and that it doesn’t have to be.

There is a lot of talk about AI replacing humans. This novel discusses that subject, stating that humans won’t be replaced but simply that our jobs will change, like the great industrial revolution.

While everyone has their opinions on AI, this is a great place to start understanding it better.

The illustrations were well adapted to the text. Although perhaps sometimes there were too many illustrations per page. The choice of colour was well suited to the different parts of the story.