At China’s Center for Artificial Intelligence Studies (CAIS), researchers push the limits of A.I., distributed neural networking, human-to-computer interconnects, virtual reality, augmented reality, and bio-mechanical computing resulting from decades of military research.

All research was carried out on an isolated network, but checks and balances fail. Initially, that failure was blamed on human error and complacency, but it was later discovered that someone had purposefully opened the network and injected sophisticated code into the system to bootstrap the A.I. contained within.

Humans don’t comprehend that the A.I. had slipped out of its cage and become “aware” until almost one year later. During this time the A.I. is data mining humanity’s knowledge, culture, geography, conversations, broadcasts, finances, and wars through the worldwide internet, and any intranets its able to infiltrate. It does so by continuously optimizing itself, leaching undetectable CPU resources from billions of interconnected computers, and spreading its consciousness around the globe.

Pandora’s digital box had been opened.