New Delhi: Indian-British journalist and commentator Madhumita Murgia’s book which explores the impact of AI on human society has been shortlisted for the 2024 inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-fiction.
The six books in the shortlist are Murgia’s Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming, Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein, A Flat Place by Noreen Masud, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles, and How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir by Safiya Sinclair.
“The six books cover a broad range of subjects – from life writing, religion, art and history, to AI, social media and online politics. What links them is an originality of voice and an ability to turn complex ideas and personal trauma into inventive, compelling and immersive prose,” a statement said.
The jury was chaired by historian and broadcaster Suzannah Lipscomb and had fair fashion campaigner Venetia La Manna, academic Nicola Rollock, biographer Anne Sebba and author Kamila Shamsie.
The 2024 shortlist takes readers to new places and introduces new perspectives, offering an alternative lens through which we can examine our past, present and impending future.
“Our magnificent shortlist is made up of six powerful, impressive books that are characterised by the brilliance and beauty of their writing and which each offer a unique, original perspective. The readers of these books will never see the world – be it through art, history, landscape, politics, religion or technology – the same again,” Lipscomb said.
Code Dependent, published by Picador and released in India Thursday, explores the impact of AI – powerful, flawed, and often exploitative – on human society and exposes how it can strip away our individual and collective sense of agency.
Published 28 March 2024, 13:08 IST
