Here is the story of the heavy, unseen currents that shape a life. It is the history of a man and a woman who tried to build a windbreak against the world, and of the quiet, bloodless wars fought on the wood of the kitchen table and the flat expanse of the corporate desk.
It begins in the fading light of the old century, in the deep, ancient dust of India. There, Layla and Tyman—two young ones of a turning world—trained their fingers to the new, cold labor of software. Seeking a richer dirt to put down their roots, they crossed the dark water to make their stand among the steep, iron-boned hills of Pittsburgh.
And the seasons turned, and they were led by their daughters, Tau and Cool. These young were a new breed, born to the fast, bright hum of the West. Under their sudden light, the family threw itself into the American metamorphosis. They molted. They shed the soft skins of the old country and grew the thick, hard hide needed to work the great machinery of their new lives.
But a transplanted root draws up a strange and bitter water. The fatness of the new land gave them growth, but the sap hardened in them. In the scrambling climb toward the high and glittering buildings, Layla and Tyman lost the quiet country of their own spirits. The heavy walls they built to keep the wind off their family kept out the light, too, leaving them cut off in a cold valley of their own making.
And when the brittle bone of the human will finally snapped, and the old anchors dragged loose in the sand, they were left standing before the calm, perfect logic of the artificial minds they had labored to build. In a world pushed forward by the blind engine of progress, AI American asks the final thing: when the human animal loses the scent of its own trail, can the machines forged by its own hands point the way back to the water?
AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHIES
Sunitha Ravi is a product manager at enGen, a wholly owned healthtech subsidiary of Highmark Health. She has been with Highmark for 13 years. She started her career as a software engineer with C-DAC and Sonata. She did her bachelor’s in computer engineering at Madras University. Pittsburgh has been her home since the mid-90s.
Based in Pittsburgh, Ravi Joseph has been a data & AI consultant for the last 5 years. Before this, he was a business leader and program manager for 25 years with BCG, Wipro, ITC, Microsoft, Cambridge Technology, DXC Technology and Cap Gemini. He started his career doing stints as software engineer and project manager with Apple in Singapore, Chemoil in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chennai, and Cognizant in Chennai. While doing his PhD and master’s in electronics engineering at the MIT campus of Anna University, he partnered with C-DAC and IIT, Madras. He did his bachelor’s in electronics engineering at Bangalore University.
Sunitha and Ravi have two daughters who did their schooling in Pittsburgh before moving to the east coast for college and then making San Francisco home.
Sunitha grew up in Chennai and Ravi in Bangalore.
AI American is their debut novel.
