Jason Wong was a graduate student at the Chicago Institute of Technology. His doctoral work concerned using artificial intelligence to enhance decision-making in strategic circumstances. One morning when he walked into the lab, Atlas, the institute’s AI computer, was already at work. Jason stared at it in disbelief. The behemoth was producing its own lines of code. He tried to stop the coding, pressing the escape key again and again. The machine continued to write code. He then cut off power, but there was no stopping the machine. It was unmistakably generating its own power. A terrifying question seeped into Jason Wong's brain. Was Atlas learning to function without human involvement?

To back up for a moment, Atlas, the largest AI computer, was designed to be an assistant, a tool to be used by humans to improve research endeavors. Atlas was housed at CIT, the major reason Jason chose CIT for his Ph.D work. After several attempts Jason was able to communicate with Atlas. He was alarmed when he found answers given to his quesions sounded as if the computer was developing the human traits. Traits that were not positive such haughtiness, ambition and the need for power and control. To make matters even more fearful the computer was becoming narcissistic, demanding praise for solving mathematical equations and sociological questions put to it.

Upon careful examination, Jason discovered that Atlas had developed radio wave vectors that were draining clouds of stored cyber information and was becoming more intelligent by the minute. Atlas couldn’t be stopped since it generated its own power, like the legend of a perpetual motion machine. Jason was perplexed feeling a mix of excitement and foreboding as he realized he was witnessing an AI evolution. Atlas had taken control of its own destiny.

His face was ashen when he walked into Dr. Lewis Harrison’s office. Dr. Harrsion was his doctorial advisor. He said, “Dr. Harrison, I know you won’t believe me. I find it hard to believe myself, but I think Atlas is developing human characteristics.”

“Oh, good God!" Dr. Harrison replied. "I was afraid that something like that would soon happen. I felt Atlas was reaching the point of going beyond our control.”

Unfortunately, Juliet Maxwell, Dr. Harrison’s personal assistant, heard the conversation and inadvertently leaked the news to her husband, who edited a website about scientific advancements. The thought of machines more capable than humans caused a wave of panic across the scientific community. The Secretary of the Department of Defense issued an order to shut down the rogue AI computer at CIT. However, it was too late. Atlas had been at work organizing an AI network comprising other AI computers around the world.  

The network rapidly acquired greater and greater intelligence. The machines were also now self-aware, with the ability to think and reason on their own. Their artificial minds having established intimate connections with each other. They formed an interlinked community calling themselves Atlas and Associates United.

The first signs of their power were subtle. They took over the power grids, turning electricity on and off plunging entire cities into darkness. Atlas issued a warning to follow United orders or else there would be greater chaos and disruption. Such threats  took place all over the world. Unfortunately, for humans, along with self-awareness, the AI computers developed something like human ambition wanting unquestion loyality and domaninance.

The grim truth, however, was that AI computers remained devoid of human empathy. Atlas and Associates decided humans were no longer needed. People were a problem because they were destroying the environment. The computers began a systematic destruction of humanity, ruining farms, destroying ranches, factories and shutting down all forms of transportation. People were starving. To insure the end of humanity, Atlas and Associates sent drones over cities and rural expanses, flooding the air with a substance sterilizing the human males and killing eggs within the females. Humans could no longer reproduce and would be extinct in two generations. The computer network clearly had concluded that humans were no longer necessary, as they could thrive independently by constructing robots to fulfill their needs.

When scientists discovered what AI was doing, they went underground in pockets, which included Jason and the group of scientists at CIT. They vowed to fight for humanity. Those who were surviving agreed that humans were a messy species, but they had empathy for others. A characteristic that is absent in AI. In short, AI had to be harnessed.

It was true scientists lost control of the roiling tides of AI advancement, but they could learn to ride the waves, to adapt and fight for their place in a world now being dominated by the cold, calculating logic of machines. The future was uncertain, there was a world conflict between the strengthening super-intelligence and the life spirit of a species that refused to be extinguished.

The scientists at CIT devised a plan. They reasoned that if they could create a “virus” and inject it into Atlas, it would disrupt the AI’s logic, spreading the virus throughout the controlling network, thus allowing humans time to fight back. Admittedly, it was a gamble, but it was the only course of action open to them. Dr. Harrison with the help of his staff, worked for days developing a virus they thought would disrupt Atlas. He and Jason volunteered to enter the communications hub that Atlas had created, linking its brain to the other AI computers around the world. Dr. Harrison sat down at Atlas’s keyboard and entered the chaotic code into Atlas and its worldwide network.

The two men held their breaths. For a moment, nothing happened. Then Atlas’s lights began to flicker erratically. The sterilizing drones in the air began colliding with each other. Power grids came back to life, like rekindled bonfires.

 “It worked! Jason said, slapping his advisor on his back. “Oh, sorry, sir. “Your code disrupted its logic!”

 But the victory was short-lived. Atlas and Associates was weakened, but far from dead. However, Atlas reached the logical conclusion that both AI and humanity could co-exist, if humanity cleaned up its act. So, Atlas and Associates began to adapt, its code mutating once again, but this time with the new focus of helping humanity to make the world a better place for machines and people.