Culpability

At the heart of the book is a family of five, struggling under extreme pressure to sort out what happened in the most pivotal moment of their lives. Did you guess who is responsible for the accident? Do Al and human action share in the blame?

When the family is first introduced, they seem happy and functional-and yet the accident puts pressure on fault lines between them that existed long before the novel's beginning. How did the crisis expose each character's strengths and weaknesses? Who rose to the occasion, and who fell short?

Throughout the novel, the friction between family members often comes from comparison: the brilliant wife and the humble husband; the favorite child and the overlooked sibling. How do the characters assess their place within the family, and how do they react to it? Are those assessments accurate?

There's a memorable character in Culpability: tech billionaire Daniel Monet. You likely bring a lot of associations and preconceptions to those words: "tech billionaire." How does Daniel Monet fit the type you expect? How does he subvert your expectations? Did you have anyone in mind when you read his character?

We're all anxious about our shared Al future-and yet Al can also make our lives easier and even save lives. Did reading the novel make you more fearful of Al's possibilities? Are there any parts of Al that you use in your day-to-day life?

How did you feel about Alice's friend Blair? When did you suspect she was a bot? Do you see Blair as helpful or menacing, or a mix of both?

Many of the characters have secrets they keep from each other. How would things have been different if the characters shared their secrets sooner? What about if they held onto their secrets longer? What would you have done in their shoes?

Lorelai, the wife in the story, is a world-class Al programmer and researcher and also a leader in the ethics of Al. Do you see her roles as inherently contradictory? Can Al be moral? Do you view her as ethical in her own life within the family?

There are two love stories in the novel-the one between Charlie, the high school graduate who was driving the car, and Dissee, the daughter of billionaire Daniel Monet, and the marriage between Lorelai and Noah. In both cases, the relationships are between people who have very different backgrounds. Discuss the role of class and privilege and how they intersect in the novel.