Page 18 of The Thorne at My Side
CHAPTER7
Not the worst idea.
MAGGIE
I bite my bottom lip as I reread the message from DCFox last night and my response. I feel like a teenager trying to mind-meld my crush into kissing me. But instead of sitting across from Cole MacDonald in some musty basement, I'm standing in my 370 square foot studio apartment, alone, and staring down at a phone.
Sam and I exchanged some texts last night and agreed to get an early start at the office this morning. She's going to meet me at Sunrise and then we're going to get on the metro together. The Senator has asked us to come in for a meeting at 10 and we're not sure what it's about.
"So, how are things going with the SMS Connect guy?" Sam asks as we reach the station.
"Good, really good, I feel like we had a breakthrough."
"Really? What kind?"
"We both admitted to having bad days," I say over my shoulder as I pass through the turnstile.
"And that was a breakthrough? You know everyone has bad days."
"Yes Sam, Iknow that, but so far we've only exchanged positive things or neutral things like our favorite movies. And I realized I was always editing out any negative tone. I'd put a positive spin on everything. But we also haven't shared personal stuff so if I was talking about work it was always in general statements."
"And your last message was negative?"
"I mean, no not really, but I got the sense from his message last night that he'd had a bad day, or that he was in his head about something so I admitted that I was feeling the same."
"And what are you in your head about? The AI stuff?"
"Yes, and the fact that Austin Thorne was in my orbit not once but twice on the day that he announced AI Media. That feels like an omen.”
"I did some reading about it, and it's a pretty smart set up." Sam says as we step onto the train.
"How so?"
"Well, they're going to leverage the reach of their media side to put out messages and news. And then they'll create shorts and content that will be related to news but not exactly news."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's say something goes viral, something about a man dismissing women's sports."
"I'm annoyed already but go on."
"The AI software will pull quotes and responses by following hashtags and the trail of shares. Their product will write articles and make videos to post to social media."
"Are they whipping up fake accounts to post these on?"
Sam levels me with a knowing look. "They could pay one person to post it and then hope people make it their own. Hope that people stitch it or share it. And by the time it's made the rounds no one will care that AI generated the content."
"I hate that it's true, but it is." I admit.
"But that's not all of it. There's an application of the software they're selling on a private basis. It wasn't highly publicized yesterday."
"What is it?" I knew her opposition research skills were top notch.
"It's a personalized content generation tool. Basically they will create a database of a public figure's past speeches and public comments and then the software will create new speeches and responses based on a simple prompt. The tool can be set to factor in the audience too so the message it produces will really hit home."
We slip into silence because neither of us needs to say it out-loud. She just described our jobs. And there’s the chance AIM can do it better than we can because it bypasses all the human emotional trap-falls we face when writing impassioned speeches.
“Is your eye okay?” Sam asks.
