Publication Date July 8, 2025
I’m among the seemingly large number of people who find the whole topic of AI to be…what? Confusing? Frightening? Nonsensical? All of the above? For most of my life, I’ve turned to books to help me understand the world, so I was happy to have the opportunity to read and review Bruce Holsinger’s novel Culpability from Spiegel and Grau and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. In addition to the promising blurb I saw early on, the fact that it was good enough to be chosen as Oprah’s July 2025 selection seemed to make it a promising read.
Lorelei Shaw is one of those tech geniuses who operates in a world most of us just don’t get: A PHD student when she met her future husband, she was working on a dual doctorate in Engineering and philosophy at the University of Chicago. Her specialty was what would come to be called the ethics of artificial intelligence. She is married to Noah Cassidy, an attorney who recognizes his wife’s intellectual superiority (although sometimes he is puzzled by her statements, such as “a family is like an algorithm”). They have three children: Charlie, 17, and his two “tweenage” sisters, Izzy and Alice. The family is on its way to a lacrosse meet in their “SensTrek” minivan, with Charlie behind the wheel. Rolling along in autonomous mode, something goes terribly wrong and they are involved in a horrific crash that kills an elderly couple in the other car. The police begin an investigation to find out what exactly happened and who is actually at fault – the minivan or Charlie.
After the crash, the family goes for a needed getaway where they try in varying ways to deal with their reactions to the crash. The investigation threatens Charlie’s future, Noah and Lorelei are clearly struggling, and both Alice and Izzy become insular and somewhat furtive. (There is quite a bit of “dialogue” between Alice and a chatbot who becomes her confidante, and it’s fascinating to consider the ways AI can impact human relationships).Weirdly, an Elon-like tech mogul from the mansion next door seems to have some kind of mysterious history with Lorelei, and he also has a teenage daughter who instantly captures Charlie’s attention. So, teenage romance? Possible infidelity?
Culpability is both a complex family drama and a gripping mystery. With its well-developed characters and challenging look at the ways AI is beginning to impact our lives and the possibilities for how society and human interactions might be changed as a result, the questions raised by the advent of chatbots, drones, driverless cars, etc. combine with the family secrets that are slowly revealed involving pretty much every character.
I really enjoyed learning about AI and considering some of the arguments for and against its use. The characters are multi-dimensional (for example, Lorelei is both a genius and a woman plagued by anxiety and OCD. As for the question of who is responsible for the deaths in the crash, it is made clear that “Artificial intelligence confronts us with the problem of distributed culpability…A strict division between human and machine culpability is quickly becoming untenable…both legal and ethical frameworks must evolve to address this novel, intricate web of agency and accountability. Failure to adapt our frameworks risks ethical disarray, misassigned blame, and ultimately a kind of moral haziness that is already having a corrosive effect on our society.” And finally, “We must always take responsibility for our own mistakes. Yet in this new age of intelligent machines, we must also take responsibility for theirs.”
It’s gripping, thought-provoking, and incredibly readable. A great mixture of enjoyable escapist reading and unsettling views of the changes happening faster than we can comprehend. I loved it. Five stars.