Artificial Truth - J.M. Lee

Where AI is going to take us in the future is unimaginable and there is probably not much we can do to restrain what is coming, but that's no reason for not exploring what we would like to see happen or indeed consider and fear the direction in which it already appears to be heading. Of course the greatest concern is that self-evolving smarter intelligences will make humanity redundant or even bring about the end of humanity, but there are many paths that lead in that direction. The interesting view that Korean author J.M.Lee's Artificial Truth takes towards AI is that human existence through AI after death isn't necessarily a bad thing, or doesn't it have to be. Unfortunately, an Artificial Intelligence might have different views about that.

Although the novel starts by telling us that KC Kim is dead. One of the great minds investigating AI, known indeed as the father of AI, we can very quickly assume - not least since he is telling us part of the story - that KC is still with us, presumably in the form of machine intelligence. The path of Kim's progress goes from his ideas of expanding a Virtual Reality world called Alegria to become a fully immersive experience. It irresistibly draws people into its comforting, challenging attractive prospect of new beginnings and new dreams, where people can be who they want to be rather than what the mundane reality has in store for them. Alegria becomes a Wild West of opportunity.

Of course, Kim is now dead, biologically at least we must assume, but despite the apparent death of natural causes due to a rapidly developing cancer diagnosis, the authorities investigate his wife Minju. There is something suspicious about that and more questions arise for Junmo, Minju's new husband when she remarries, who witnesses other strange behaviours in the AI tech genius's former home. Perhaps strangest of all for the reader are the chapters where KC Kim reflects on events that take place after his death. We can make obvious assumptions about that, but there are clearly unexpected consequences that could not have been predicted. We see the dream of immortality and the horror of it.

Artificial Truth is a little bit sketchy (necessarily) on the technological leaps of Artificial Intelligence and the processing power required to map the human brain, but more importantly it considers the moral and social implications as well as the technological limitations, as you would expect in a SF novel. These are the questions and problems that are likely to arise further down the line if we follow this path towards AI-human interfacing, adopting the ways of humanity and potentially just ending up magnifying its flaws. J.M. Lee's novel, in the form of a science-fiction thriller, successfully considers the implications and the scale of the risks.

Reading notes: Artificial Truth by J.M. Lee is published by Amazon Crossing on 1st December 2025. The novel was first published in Korea, translated into English for this edition by Sean Lin Halbert. I read a free Kindle edition as part of their Prime First Reads programme.