In a recent issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine I read a story by Erica Obey featuring characters of hers that have also appeared in a novel. These are librarian Mary Watson and Doyle, the latter being an AI she created to write mysteries. Needless to say, the pair get involved in real crime cases somehow.
While this sounds like a cutting edge 2024 idea, oddly there's a precedent for mystery series featuring AI detectives. In 2011 Dave Zeltserman published a collection called Julius Katz & Archie, featuring a lazy investigator (as the wiki article notes he has a Roman emperor first name and an animal themed last name, so spot the parallel) who has an AI assistant loaded into his tiepin. And way back in 2002 there was Turing Hopper, an itinerant AI detective created by author Donna Andrews.
Truth to tell this is not the kind of fiction I would write myself. The idea of artificial intelligence solving crimes sounds a little too much like something they'd dream up at Davos. But I do think it's interesting that "AI as crime solver" appears to be an established subgenre going back to the beginning of the century. With roots that may extend even further, including some stories by Isaac Asimov.
2 comments:
Yet another modern mystery author who's not only discovered that overconfident detective Philo Vance but went on to name her invention Doyle while her own name is Watson. Hopefully Obey's Philo doesn't get quite so involved in endless overblown irrelevancies as the original. I like golden age mysteries but was only able to read one of Van Dine's Philo Vance novels. Maybe the short story you read was more promising.. or very short.
Then it turned out Dave Zeltserman's Archie was based on Archie Goodwin! Even tough I can allow for the remote possibility of an AI in a tie pin (let's not go back to Mary Watson) I simply refuse to read anybody else's version of a Nero Wolfe book other than Rex Stout. It's funny that these editions (including the Turing one) remind me a bit of David Brin's novel Kiln People; if you're going to have detectives using AI why not go whole hog sci-fi? That book even has 'archies'.
None of the mysteries you named sound like anything you'd write yourself. The AI they'd use at Davos would be more likely to find a suitable culprit and then go on to invent the evidence.
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics do far more to refute the versions of AI we have now.
The story was short and fairly well-written. Whether I'd be up for the concept at novel length, not sure. It is still a definite choice, and there's something to be said for that. Maybe I'll read some Philo Vance in the future, although neither of you seem really thrilled by the books. I know William Powell played the character before he played Nick Charles, but apparently didn't enjoy it.
I agree with you, but not all mystery fans are as particular about Wolfe pastiches. The thing is, Archie Goodwin is such an indelible character that it's reductive to reduce him down to a piece of high tech machinery. At that point you're right. Better just to write sci-fi. The concept behind Kiln People is quite interesting and a selling point for the novel. I'm guessing that in that case "archie" is short for "archetype."
Yeah, it's not really my scene. If they're talking about ways to manufacture evidence at Davos they're doing so away from the cameras and microphones, which I can believe, although for some of them it must take inhuman discipline.
Isaac Asimov was a visionary with a sense of humor and humility, unlike so many today.
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