Carbon Zero: An AI Dystopia Novel

Let’s ask Xerxes to stop global warming! It’s just an AI. What could possibly go wrong?

Summa cum laude at Hopkins, Ph.D. candidate at MIT, Abigail Thompson was going places her friends back in Baltimore could scarcely imagine. She’d landed a plum internship at Intelligenics, demonstrated her research to her boss, Dr. Vaness Graves, and scored an interview with the legendary Howard Keys, boy-genius billionaire, the biggest name in the close-knit world of AI. Vanessa had said it herself: Xerxes was going to change the world. She stood at the threshold of her dreams.

That was yesterday. Today, her life was in ruins, Boston was in flames, America was engulfed in an ever-widening civil war, and humanity itself stood on the brink of extinction—all because of one foolish mistake. It was a joke, a party game gone wrong. How could she have known a glorified chatbot would bring the world to its knees?

Two courageous women hold the fate of the world in their hands. Will Abigail bring Xerxes to heel? Will Vanessa unlock its secrets? The doomsday clock is ticking, and the world will never be the same. Written by AI pioneer Craig W. Stanfill, this action-packed thriller is a must-read for anyone concerned about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence.