What is Efficiency? What is Fairness?: Gu Shi's "Choice City"

Synopsis

Included in "2181 Overture" (published in 2024).
In a future where disasters caused by climate change have intensified, the protagonist lives in a city frequently plagued by floods. Like many others, they own a car equipped with an external airbag and a disaster relief navigation AI named Dayu. The airbag deploys outside the vehicle during a flood, allowing the car to function as a boat, while the AI guides the user along the best evacuation route from their current location.
However, a suspicion arises that Dayu might be choosing which humans to save. The protagonist was actually involved in the development of this type of AI since the days of Xiaoyu, Dayu's predecessor. Although they cannot obtain concrete evidence because the algorithm is a black box, the protagonist cannot deny the possibility of "selection" based on past experience. Feeling responsible as one of the designers, the protagonist heads to the building where Dayu's main unit is located, but...

Impressions

While the story is simple, it is scattered with wordplay and expressions based on Chinese legends; in a word, I felt it was a "skillful" work.
The motif of humans becoming completely dependent on AI and allowing the AI they created to decide who lives and who dies is not particularly novel. However, the nuances of the hearts of the characters who flesh out such a story (the central figures are all women—this is the same as in the "2181 Overture" reprint introduction I introduced previously, and I believe it is a characteristic that stems from Gu Shi's strong awareness of being a female writer herself) are depicted in detail, giving the work a post-reading experience that allows one to savor the depth of human relationships.
Furthermore, the wordplay and Chinese legends revolve around the names of the AI and the central characters. The AI was initially named "YU (Xiaoyu)," which has the same pronunciation as the Chinese word for "rain." After the protagonist muttered, "Isn't it heavy rain, not light rain?" while looking outside, the AI began calling itself "Dayu." That "Dayu" has the same pronunciation as "Dayu," the honorific title for Yu the Great, a legendary wise ruler of China. There is a legend that this Yu succeeded in controlling the flooding of great rivers. The names of the protagonist, "Tushan Jiao," and her child, "Qi," are also borrowed directly from the names of Yu's wife and child. The fact that it can be read with interest in these points as well is a small charm of the work.
By the way, Yu's father was named Gun, and he failed to control the floods. This Gun also appears as the name of an AI assistant that can be switched from YU. (However, because it has the same pronunciation as "gun," a curse word in Chinese, YU says, "Please stop using rude language," and it cannot be switched to, so GUN has no lines. Poor thing...)

About the Author

I introduced Gu Shi previouslyhere. It is said that she is not only a science fiction writer but also has a career as an urban planner. Knowing that and reading this work might allow you to feel even more depth in the story.