Photo courtesy of Abigail Hing Wen
By JACK DELANEY | jdelaney@queensledger.com
Thirteen-year-old Bran has a lot on his mind. His family is struggling to make the rent, for instance, and his neurodiversity, coupled with the inherent awkwardness of puberty, sometimes makes it hard to connect with people. So he invents an escape: an AI-generated VR world called the Vale.
Bestselling author Abigail Hing Wen dreamed up this fantastical world, which lends its name to her latest YA novel’s title, back in 2015. But “The Vale” was seen as too out-there at the time — a middle-grade book about artificial intelligence? — so it was shelved.
With the benefit of hindsight, the topic now seems urgent. A survey released last week by the Higher Education Policy Institute found that 92% of students have used generative AI in their studies, up 30% from last year. Exploring the ways in which this technology intersects with the everyday lives of kids, as Wen’s story does, is extremely timely.
As a former venture capital lawyer specializing in AI startups, Wen has been worrying about the tool’s pitfalls longer than most. “I was really interested in the ethics and safety issues around this really powerful technology I saw coming into the world, but I found that almost nobody knew about it outside of Silicon Valley,” she told the Star. “So I wrote ‘The Veil’ in part to democratize access to that information.”
Strikingly, however, “The Vale” isn’t just a cautionary tale. Rendered with comfortingly colorful illustrations by Yuna Cheong and Brandon Wu, the book doesn’t shirk away from AI’s dangers — but it emphasizes the now-ubiquitous technology’s potential to facilitate creative expression and foster a sense of belonging, especially amongst neurodiverse kids.
“It’s a Narnia story, right?” said Wen, who is such a fan of the CS Lewis series that she brought it with her on her honeymoon. “You go into this fantasy world, and it’s a world that you can make and shape yourself. I want kids to know that they are in charge of these tools — it’s their creation, it’s their worlds, it’s the things they’re building.”
Wen’s talents extend beyond the literary realm. Her 2020 novel “Loveboat, Taipei” was adapted into a movie for Paramount+, and she recently directed and produced a hybrid animated and live-action short called “The Veil – Origins,” a prequel that explores a miscarriage that drives Bran’s family apart and compels him to create his AI pocket universe.
Many of Wen’s themes are consistent, despite the myriad media. One which crops up as a plot point in “The Veil,” perhaps surprisingly for a middle-grade title, is IP theft. “It was really shocking to me as a young professional, so that wound is at the core of the story, too,” she said. “I still see it all over Hollywood, which is very frustrating for me, and it’s something I feel I need to call out.”
AI is exciting, and one of the book’s protagonists, Piper, embodies that restless innovative energy with which many students can probably relate. Wen uses the example of portrait painters. Once upon a time, a good portrait was something only the rich could acquire, by hiring artisans at a premium. With the advent of iPhones, anyone can now capture high-quality images, and Wen hopes that AI will open similar doors.
But ultimately, the book does want kids to know that there’s more to life than what’s digital. “Part of the storyline is Bran’s journey out of the Veil, because he actually does need to learn to live in the real world. No matter how amazing and enticing this Veil is, it will eventually spin off and become its own world. For him, human relationships are really hard, but it’s rewarding when you push through those hard things, and that’s part of the lesson that he learns.”
Wen will be giving an author talk at the Brooklyn Heights Library, located at 286 Cadman Plaza West, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on September 18. The event will also include a showing of “The Vale – Origins,” starring the celebrated actress Lea Salonga and soundtracked with the help of Wen’s daughter. There will be free boba tea for those who get there early, plus free temporary tattoos if you buy a copy.
