Joan Cohen is the author of the new novel The Deepfake. She also has written the novel Land of Last Chances. She lives in Massachusetts.
Q: What inspired you to write The Deepfake, and how did you create your character Sylvie?
A: Sylvie, like many of us, is a people pleaser. I wanted her to see how people-pleasing carried too far can lead to ethical problems in the workplace.
I’m intrigued by the moral and ethical dilemmas we all face at one time or another, and though I may not have the answers, I try to show how different fictional characters approach them and what the consequences are.
Q: The writer Ellen Bravo said of the book, “Just in time for the debate over the dangers of AI, Joan Cohen brings us a corporate drama-turned-thriller layered with sexual misconduct, everyday misogyny, and the power of friendship and romance.” What do you think of that description?
A: Ellen Bravo’s description is accurate. I wanted my characters to have both personal and professional issues because in real life, our problems can stubbornly resist staying compartmentalized in one or the other.
Artificial intelligence, for example, is beginning to affect every aspect of our lives, yet when I first started writing The Deepfake, there was only nonfiction or speculative fiction that covered the subject.
I think AI should be in every contemporary novel, even if it’s just peripheral to the story because it’s part of the scenery of our lives and relationships. We’re all going to wrestle with the issues it raises, especially in what we see and read online.
Can we distinguish between information, misinformation, and disinformation when all of it looks real?
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I always have an idea for a story when I start writing, but I never know how it will end. The more I write about my characters, the more I realize where they are heading.
Although I make changes in my first draft, I try to keep them to a minimum unless I feel like I’ve gone down a rathole. During revision—that’s when I make lots of changes.
Q: As someone who’s worked in the tech field, did you need to do much research to write the book?
A: During my career, I worked for technology companies, but I was never a software engineer. I worked primarily in marketing and sales. I did some programming early on when artificial intelligence was in its infancy, but I had no experience with AI.
Most of the research I did for my book wasn’t about the innards of AI software. It was about the way AI’s capabilities had begun to affect our lives at work and in medicine, transportation, religion, and the arts, just to name a few.
When generative AI (ChatGPT, GPT-4) became available, it seemed to explode on the scene. I had to make many changes to my story as I was writing to keep it from becoming obsolete before it was out the door.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a new novel. It’s not set in a corporate environment, and this time politics play a role.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I can’t think of anything else you should know about me except, perhaps, that I love dogs. I’ve had eight, and there’s a dog in each of my two novels (and in the one to come).
My website is joancohenauthor.com, and I’m on Facebook at Joan Cohen Author. Deborah, thank you!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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