Told in a sequence of emails and machine-generated observations within an AI company seeking to build software that will tailor commercials to each consumer’s personal proclivities, this is a disturbingly recognizable fantasy of computer intelligence run rampant. The reader will find some of the notions characterized here very familiar. A consumer question about frying pans results in a spate of ads touting frying pans from any number of manufacturers that continues without respite until and unless the victim can find a way to opt out. Take the concept to its ultimate and, perhaps, ridiculous extreme and sell it to ad agencies, corporations, banks, healthcare providers and other entities wanting to get a bigger piece of the collective pie.

Noah, a disgraced ad writer who has left his agency in ignominy is hired, in an unlikely-seeming piece of serendipity, to work for UniView AI, producers of the world’s “most trusted name in AI” to teach its new bot how to write ads more effectively using consumer psychology and gathered information from purchasing patterns. The email strings from the near-manic CEO, the chief engineer, a rebellious ethics monitor and Noah himself reveal a sinister scheme to cash in on the morally ambiguous aspects of invasion of personal lives to sell products, most not in the best interest of the purchasers. The narrative is punctuated by observations made by the company’s security system of cameras and recording devices to reveal that the employees of UniView are not exempt from electronic manipulation and scrutiny.

The notion that the artificial intelligence here is becoming sentient and capable of directing its own fate creates a disturbing feeling in the reader, the situation being so similar to what we see happening in our own lives. A surprising ending to this dystopian tale will surely give pause for thought.