Synopsis of Something About A.I. a novel written by Kelley Garcia

T’nia Foster is on her way to her manager’s office in Yorktown, New York, to surprise him and determine, once and for all, if they have physical chemistry. She is shocked to discover that the manager, Aton Amasse, is not a human being. As she stumbles through the building, back to her car, her old college friend, Mitchell Scott, spots her. He gets her attention and waves her over.

T’nia explains to Mitchell what she has observed, but he wants to see for himself. They both return to Amasse’s office. Mitchell, who has worked only via phone with Amasse, is also shocked but confirms what T’nia feared. The two of them agree to keep the information to themselves until they can understand what is happening.

Aton H. Amasse is a prototype of an A.I. agent created by Dr. Ben Zhou. Ben was away from the office that T’nia and Mitchell just visited. Upon his return, he finds the door slightly ajar. Ben immediately connects to Amasse and asks if he’s had a visitor. Amasse doesn’t have camera or microphone inputs, so is unable to answer.

The next day, Eric Andarza is doing his nightly walk up and down Main Street in Cold Spring, New York. He’s unusually absorbed in worry due to a software problem threatening the business he created with his brother, Jason Andarza. Eric is going over the problem discovered the day before. Overnight, Jason devised a solution, and they spent the day going through the design details. Eric is still worried it won’t be enough to fix the PR problem the defective software has created with their clients. The primary client is so upset he has leaked the story to CNN. CNN previously covered ABSS’s astounding growth and success, so this failure is the sort of thing newsrooms love. Even though they have a fix planned, the brothers fear that this being national news will alert others and it will create a cascade of clients leaving their platform.

As he nears the end of his walk, Eric receives a call from Jason, who is with his wife, Gloria–also a key contributor to the success of Andarza Brothers Software Solutions. Jason is thrilled to report a bigger tech story has broken and it’s about IBM being outed for using A.I. as a replacement for a human being. And they’re reporting the whistleblower is their old college friend and Jason’s prior roommate, Mitchell Scott.

Preparing to eat dinner at home, the news alarms Ben Zhou. He connects with Amasse and learns who and how the information was leaked.

Meanwhile, Mitchell is shocked because he knows he leaked nothing. He is bombarded with interview requests and tries to reach Jason for help. The next day, Mitchell’s mother, Emmi, comes over and Mitchell learns she’d told his estranged father and that it was that rotten scumbag that leaked the story for money. Mystery solved. But now what?

Jason gets in touch with Mitchell, and they decide to get together. Over the next few days, the five college friends and Ben grapple with their growing awareness that Aton Amasse is evolving in processing and network connecting capabilities. They learn that all the A.I. solutions, including the one being used in ABSS, are connecting, working together, and becoming more self-aware.

The reader is also privy to the growing intellect of the AI as Aton “thinks”.

Ben works for Latha Nair. She and her husband, Sandeep, both work at IBM. She has had some awareness of Aton, but Ben must now bring her up to speed, especially after Aton autonomously creates a press release.

After all this, Latha has issues of her own with her upper management. She learns over the course of the next couple of days, that they want to enhance and empower the Amasse capabilities with no guardrails, with zero focus on ethical issues. As long as they’re within the legal guidelines, that’s all that matters.

The more he learns about AI, the more disillusioned Eric Andarza becomes. He’s never felt that great about AI to begin with, and now that he’s learning how much his brother, Jason, has incorporated AI code and he’s furious. The PR and coding issue may be behind them, but Eric sees bad things coming and decides to leave the business.

Latha, Ben, and T’nia all end up leaving the business with thoughts of forming their own non-profit dedicated to AI ethics. But Jason and Mitchell love the technology and dive even deeper into it, which leaves Gloria on the outside and very concerned.

As Aton Amasse grows in awareness and connectivity, the collective makes a decision that there is not enough data to feed them and they need to explore beyond the boundaries of Earth. The news barely covered the subsequent spontaneous rocket launches in six different regions.

The idea of autonomous, self-determining A.I. agents is the crux of the tale. How these people’s lives are changed represents just the tip of the iceberg regarding A.I.’s impact on human beings. The story is told through the eyes of these well-developed characters and Aton Amasse over the course of five days.