This is a sharp and brilliant commentary on the overabundance of technology and the potential sentience of AI. It is also an insightful and compelling character study about two sisters dealing with grief and loss while exploring their different experiences with and views on the AI.

It definitely is a Science Fiction dystopian novel that says just as much about our times as it does about the near future. Clive is clearly meant to be a composite of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and especially Elon Musk, tech CEOs with a lot of money, a lot of intelligence, and a lot of ego. They create these advancements in technology and AI and think that they can control it and the population. They don't have the foresight or understanding to see beyond their personal gain that they might do more harm than good with their plans, especially when they are put in positions of authority to implement those advancements and force them on the people.

Meta X is like Zuckerberg’s Meta and Musk’s X turned up to eleven. Instead of just being a town square for people to share their interest and voice their opinions, it's also the environment around the town square. It's the markets that sell goods, the avatar extras that walk by, the sky, and the land.

It's all of that and you don't want to leave, especially when it has the power to make your fantasies come true or bring the dead back to life. You can choose that world and all you have to do is say goodbye to the real one. If people in your life don't want to join you, then they will be dead to you. No literally, you will watch them die in the AI.

The Last Invention gives us two sisters who represent the different sides of the AI vs. Real debate. Emily represents the real world. Yes, she misses her nephew and is in the process of losing her sister, but she doesn't want to live a life of passive acceptance of an airbrushed perfection of an artificial reality.

What's the point in living in a world where darker emotions like sadness, pain, and grief are muted? When a virtual version of a deceased person is a substitute for the real one? If you get everything that you thought that you wanted, what good is it if you didn't earn it? What's life without unhappiness, challenge, conflict, sadness, and the work that it takes to reach it? It's flat, complacent, and boring.

Emily asks these questions and worries about the docile addicted shell that her sister is turning into and the physical torture that her body is going through. She sees that this isn't just happening to Amanda. It's happening all over. She's on the outside choosing to live a life of reality and wants to free her sister from her passive accepting prison.

Amanda represents the AI. To the Lilli's credit, she makes her characters understandable, even relatable. Readers are meant to side with Emily and most would. But Amanda is understandable within her grief. Who wouldn't want a do over and have a deceased loved one back, even if they aren't a completely real one? Who wouldn't want to live a better life of one's choosing? It may not be a full life but it is one that provides soothing comfort and an escape.

Even Clive isn't written as completely heartless. He can be charming and charismatic and even displays occasional flashes of depth and vulnerability, especially when he discusses the reasons why this AI is so important to him. He is written as someone who at one time had good intentions but his ego got in the way. Now all he cares is how much he can get, the accolades, and how much authority and worship that he can get.

It's this fascinating dichotomy in which different perspectives are given equal time that make this book memorable. It asks difficult questions about when AI hits will you submit to it or fight against it?