東京都同情塔

I read this around the time it was making headlines for winning the Akutagawa Prize. The story is set in Tokyo in 2030. LLMs have become completely mainstream, and everyone uses a chat AI called “AI-built” for writing and research. The protagonist is Sara Machina, a world-renowned architect who designed the recently constructed Tokyo Sympathy Tower (commonly known as the Tokyo Sympathy Tower) near Shinjuku Gyoen. Although the tower functions as a prison, its inner workings are entirely different. It treats criminals as “Homo Miserabilis” (people deserving of sympathy) and provides them with a comfortable life in a place isolated from those deemed worthy of celebration. While opinions were divided, the project was carried out because it was considered “progressive.” The novel depicts a sense of crisis regarding the "word policing" of Japanese terms—such as "diversity," "sexual minorities," and "differently abled"—as they are gradually replaced with katakana loanwords, as well as the growing concern that these terms will eventually be generated by AI. The irony that the novel itself was written using ChatGPT is particularly interesting. However, the setting is only interesting in the first half; the second half drags on with a tedious plot. My overall impression is that, given my expectations, nothing much happened. Also, I think the idea that AI in 2030 can only write documents lacks imagination.