Love is an Algorithm

A timely, funny novel about making art, outsourcing our emotions to technology, and writing our own love stories.

Eve wants to make music that's fuelled by love, passion, and rage (feelings!). She trusts her gut and her friends and in no way wants to rely on technology, let alone AI, to tell her how she feels. Danny is anxious-about his dad, his dating life, his coffee order (why is it twelve dollars?), and about Pattern, the dating app he helped create, which seems determined to serve him terrible matches.

When Eve and Danny start dating, it feels like the solution to all of Danny's worries-except when it doesn't. Is she happy? Should he be doing more? Or less? His anxieties inspire him to create a revolutionary new version of Pattern that promises to quantify relationship health and potential, helping users understand what's really going on.

As Pattern and Bug, the ever-so-friendly AI assistant, catch fire, users everywhere begin outsourcing major life decisions to Danny's algorithms. But as Danny reckons with his newfound success, Eve-whose career relies on her ability to write her emotions into song-grows increasingly sceptical of the app's impact on genuine connection. Their relationship becomes the ultimate modern experiment- how do you fall and stay in love in the digital age?

PRAISE-

'this lightly speculative romance...contains sharp observations of romance among digital natives.' Age

'Warm, funny, emotional, propulsive and real-a beautiful love story.' Jessica Stanley, author of Consider Yourself Kissed

'The love story of Danny and Eve in Laura Robson's novel is one for the ages, but it's also entirely of this moment...funny, fast-paced, and intimate.' Kyle Chayka, author of Filterworld

'An engaging, fun take on modern relationships, of all types, written in a zippy, non-linear style. Thoughtful and amusing.' Canberra Weekly

'Smart, funny, immensely readable, and deeply insightful about how we make art, fall in love, and connect with each other in the age of AI.' Else Fitzgerald, author of Everything Feels Like the End of the World