CARBON ZERO

AN AI DYSTOPIA NOVEL From the Dawn of the AI Dystopia series , Vol. 1 by Craig W. Stanfill ‧ RELEASE DATE: today A timely speculative novel about climate change and technology, let down somewhat by uneven character development. In Stanfill’s action-packed dystopian thriller, disastrous consequences unfold when a talented young programmer tasks her AI creation with finding a way to avert climate change. In 2036, Abigail Thompson, a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is working as an intern for the summer at Intelligenics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After a traumatic childhood in Baltimore, she’s now focused on her future. She’s eager to rise through Intelligenics’ ranks, so she arranges to show off her “intelligent network administration agent,” Xerxes, to her superior, Vanessa Graves, who’s the director of research. At a private demo, Vanessa authorizes Xerxes’ request to access the company’s cloud, where it creates a clone of itself. The director is impressed by the creative problem-solving capacity of Abigail’s creation, so she promises the thrilled intern an interview with the company’s CEO, Howard Keys—a wunderkind billionaire with far-reaching in...