‘Ghosts’ is the result of Vara using an early version of ChatGPT to discuss – and process – the loss of her sister. It is, again, something that could only work in the short form.
The story itself is a type of memoir, with Vara giving the AI increasingly detailed prompts and letting it ‘finish’ her sister’s story. But it is more about the process than the prose. There’s no attempt to pass the machine’s outputs off as real, human effort, nor is the AI’s work ‘good’ in any conventional sense. The real story here is what’s happening off the page, as we witness the author walk, one small, AI-aided step at a time, towards a form of healing.
As I write this, the use of AI in the arts – in all aspects of our lives – is terrifying. It is cold, and cruel and dehumanizing. Vara’s story is not ‘by’ AI or even ‘about’ it. It is entirely about herself and her own, very human, feelings. The tool is rightfully secondary to the human behind it. It is an exquisite work, and, again, something that is far more than the sum of its parts.
First published in Believer Magazine, 2021. Collected in Best American Essays, Mariner, 2022, The Big Book of Cyberpunk, Vintage, 2023 and the upcoming Searches, Pantheon, 2025. Read it online here
A Personal Anthology 