Page 87 of The Thorne at My Side
As I change the channel all the possible “we’re fucked” scenarios run through my mind. We are under nuclear attack. AI Media or TMC got hacked.
CNN comes on and I keep the phone to my ear as I listen to the anchors and try to read the scroll at the bottom of the screen.
TMC’S AI MEDIA CAUSES MASS PANIC
IN CERTAIN PARTS OF THE COUNTRY.
What the fuck?
“Kevin, what is going on?”
“I’m on my way into the office but when I logged in at home I saw one article had gone viral within the app. It was a natural disaster piece we summarized from TMChatter and about half of the people who had our summary on their feed shared it.”
“Okay, but why is this causing mass panic?”
“Because our article said all these disasters were going to happen this next year.”
“Shit,” I say as I stand up. Elle is waving her arms at me trying to communicate something but I ignore her.
“A lot of shit.” Kevin clarifies, “From what I can tell the article went viral within our app but people also shared it to other social apps. Clearly they didn’t realize it was incorrect information.”
And from there people decided the information was true because their friends said so. It’s exactly what we wanted to happen. It’s what the entire model is based off of. But we never accounted for the original information being incorrect or misleading.
“Fuck!” I yell out. “I’ll see you at the office in twenty.”
Elle is now standing and looking at me with concern in her eyes. “Is there anything I can do?” she asks.
“No, this is going to be a mess and I have to get it handled before Dad knows.”
“You think he doesn’t yet?”
“Shit, you’re right. I bet he’s already at the office.”
???
“Sir.Sir. He’s not taking meetings right now,” I hear Elizabeth say outside my door. I lift my head from where I’ve been reading the content analytics report from the last 24 hours to see my dadstorming into my office.
“What the fuck Austin?” He demands as he comes to stand over my desk.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Thorne,” Elizabeth says to me at the door as she reaches for the knob to close it.
“It’s fine, thank you Elizabeth.” I give her a weak smile and turn to face Dad. “I’m not sure how to answer your question. Could you be more specific?”
I know I’m being childish but I’m tired and annoyed and it’s how he sees me anyway so why bother to summon maturity?
“Why has our stock plummeted to half its value overnight?” he roars.
Money, it’s always about the bottom line.
I sigh and slide my glasses from my face. I press into my temples as I gather my calm and reply. “From what we can tell it was from one story that went viral. Unfortunately, the story had misinformation and instead of people calling out the issue they shared it as real.”
“Help me understand how your little computer could fuck up this bad.”
“Well, as with all technology, humans have to teach the computers what to do. We can give machines the tools to learn but ultimately they rely on human input. TMC shared content yesterday with the top ten natural disasters of the last twenty five years and when AI Media created the summary to share to our users it said the disasters were going to happen next year.”
“Why am I losing money?” Dad demands as he walks over to the window in my office.
“Because half of the internet figured out the mistake but the other half didn’t. Those people, instead of sharing the original story, started to post that they were going tostock up on food and toilet paper, and their friends picked that up and told all their friends they were doing the same.”
