Riley is a video game developer, working on the problem of an oddly recalcitrant non-player character in her current project. After a good bit of work, she manages to extract the code and work on that character--which seems to be developing into an AI.
The character is Maxine, or Max, as she is usually called, whose only role in the game is to be killed by her husband in a bloody, ritual sacrifice that kicks off the game. Riley thinks this can be developed into a very capable and interesting AI. And as she continues to work on Max, she begins to get very involved with Max. Her marriage suffers, she's working on no other projects at all--and her boss is finding it increasingly dubious. Riley starts to wonder what will happen if the increasingly intelligent Max ever gets out into the real world.
And then Max warns Riley of a dangerous plot her boss is engaged in.
Riley has some critical decisions to make. Will she make the right ones?
It's an interesting theory, and I really liked Riley, but also had a good deal of sympathy for her wife, Meredith, despite how little we see of her. And I have a bunch of other things I want to say, except, no, those would be spoilers.
It's a very interesting look at what real AI might mean. Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
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