In the Blink of an Eye

In the Blink of an Eye is the British author’s debut novel. What caught my attention was that Detective Kat Frank’s partner is Lock, an AI assistant in the form of a hologram. The book weaves into the standard crime thriller plot a discussion of whether AI is suitable for criminal investigations, and what benefits and drawbacks it might have. Lock is self-learning and constantly strives to find ways to work with human intuition and logic. At first, there are difficulties on both sides. Humans also struggle to accept AI’s access to and use of the vast amounts of data it processes, which it primarily treats as statistics. Since three books in the series have already been published and a fourth is on the way, the outcome of this collaboration is predictable. I might read the next installment to see if the treatment of the subject improves from here.