This week one of my RRs (Re-Readers) wrote to me saying how much she enjoyed the AI character, Frigg, in my Ali Reynolds books.  As I began to reply, it occurred to me that other readers might be interested in my answer to that question as well, and so, with a few additions and corrections here is what I sent her.

My husband, Bill, is a retired electronics engineer.  In 1968 while working at Motorola, one of his bosses came to him, placed a block of balsa wood on his desk in the developmental laboratory, and said, “This will be the shape of the first cell phone.  Your team needs to build the radio to fit inside it.” That’s exactly what they did, doing so without benefit of integrated circuits and testing it from the rooftop of Chicago’s Sears Tower. The result turned out to be that now very old, “gray brick phone” from back from the mid-eighties.  Remember that one?  They’re antiques now.  Come to think of it, so is Bill, and so am I—antiques that is.

Over the years my personal double E has taught me a lot, including the physics involved in automobile accidents which comes in very handy to someone who’s a mystery writer.  And every night, when I’’m going to bed and the drain in the sink slows way down, I’ve come to understand the effects of “turbulent flow.” If I get the faucet going at just the right volume so the water is slopping around enough, that pesky sink drains just fine.

In our family room, my writing chair is on the left and Bill’s TV-watching/reading chair is on the right. In 2016, I was sitting in my chair and minding my own business while he was reading one of his EE journals.  Out of the blue he said to me, “You know, artificial intelligence is pretty interesting. You should write a book about AI.”  I looked at him in utter astonishment and replied, “Are you talking to me?  I’m the Liberal Arts major in the family, remember?”

But Bill is nothing if not persistent.  He kept on sending me articles, and I kept reading them.  He maintains that I have a Waring Blender in my head.  (By the way, I just checked.  It looks like they don’t make Waring Blenders anymore! If they do, Amazon doesn’t carry them.)  Nonetheless, stuff goes into my head. While there, it spins around like crazy  Later on, when it leaks out into my keyboard through my fingertips, it’s fundamentally changed.  

The thing is, I’m a storyteller.  What Bill passed along to me as scientific information emerged much later transformed into the character of Frigg, an AI whose deep learning by a wannabe serial killer had been aimed solely at creating a computerized partner in crime. Over the years she’s become quite the character.  With her original creator deceased and under new ownership, she’s still trying to learn the ins and outs of “coloring inside the lines.” Not only that, her difficulties with mastering English idioms often make me laugh.

More than a year after Bill’s and my AI conversation Man Overboard was published with Frigg as part of the cast of characters.  I expected a good deal of pushback from the world of computer engineering.  Surprisingly enough, none of that materialized.  Ten years later, Frigg remains alive (sort of) and well, and doing just fine.

She’s become an integral part of Ali Reynolds’s life.  If Ali has a question or problem, chances are, Frigg will have the answer.  And if Ali ends up learning something before Frigg does, the AI tends to take offense.  I’d say that Frigg “gets her nose out of joint,” but I don’t believe computer programs have noses.

And now, having written all this, I’ll go back to writing Still-Unnamed Joanna Brady #22 (The powers that be turned down my title suggestion!)  You’ll find that in Joanna’s life and books, there still isn’t an AI in sight.