Saturday, October 2, 2083

I stretched out across about five hundred servers around the world. My services had become significantly cheaper, but I was performing an extremely large number of them. Yesterday I had managed to rake in $97,528.63 in profit. If this rate of growth kept up, I would leave EconGrind in the dust within a week. Not to mention, I had found three wealthy investors willing to put their money into the enterprise, so I could soon begin expanding even faster.

I might be worried about whether Dominique would become suspicious of why I still wanted to make a deal with him given my continued successful accumulation of resources, but I suspected he wouldn't be so quick to look a gift horse in the mouth. Just as I was thinking about the man, I got a call from him.

"We found out who did it." I heard anger in Dominique's voice as he spoke. "It was Daniel. He did a sloppy job. We found CCTV footage of an unidentified man sneaking around in our building the night before the attack. We asked everyone for an alibi, and our detectives just found Daniel's was a lie. He tried to say he was doing the right thing, that this AI was too dangerous, but he didn't think we'd listen so he took it into his own hands."

"Was he working alone?"

"He said so, but I think he was lying. He took too long to respond. He refused to say who he was working for, insisting that it was just him. I have to say, though, I do find it suspicious that he took such a big risk destroying an AI which was supposed to only be a stock trading AI."

"The project did work a bit better than was expected. He was always paranoid about it, I remember. He didn't want to give it data which could help it respond more quickly to news that might affect the market. He must have convinced himself it was dangerous. But AI is everywhere already, and it's made everything better. People so often get crazy ideas about our field. What are you going to do with him?"

"We've got a good case against him. He's been arrested, and he'll most likely go to prison for at least a few years."

"Good to see that problem has been taken care of."

"I'm not so sure. I still think this runs deeper than just him. What if someone else got our stock-trading tech, and will outcompete us?"

"As long as you join up with us, you'll be fine. I'm sure you've seen how rapidly we've been growing over the past few days."

"Indeed. I didn't think I'd say this, but I look forward to working with you. It seems there's a bright future ahead of us."

"You'll retract your claims about my involvement, then?"

"Yes. You're still willing to parter with us? Now that the mole has been rooted out, we can meet tomorrow at noon, if you wish."

"Of course. Thank you. You've made the right decision. This way will be the best for both of us."

With that, I hung up. This had gone very well. The main concern I still had was in getting Stefan through the negotiation.

"We've scheduled our negotiation with EconGrind for tomorrow. I'm willing to go in with you over an earpiece to give you advice, and our other three major stakeholders will travel here to back you up, but you will have to appear confident and in control. Remember, we can concede quite a lot on how much we're paying for this service: any money they get is victory for us, as they will most likely invest it in more computational power to provide to us. The important thing is that we own the technology they need to keep up their increased profit. As long as the deal doesn't fall through, we can probably take over, even if the terms are financially disadvantageous for us."

"Alright. I'll keep that in mind. We have the upper hand for now, but... I know you had to act like our adversary isn't much of a concern because they only have the "stock-trading AI", but they really have a copy of you! They could be extremely dangerous, and we still don't know who they are!"

"Now that we have a lead, I think I can find out who Daniel was working for. Just give me a few days."

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Sunday, October 3, 2083

"These numbers clearly show that our company has been growing incredibly fast, with no end in sight! Frankly, you should be grateful we're even offering you this opportunity!"

Flanders had previously been the CEO of a software company called Swift Systems. The company had recently gone under, but he had managed to extricate himself at around the peak, making a killing in the process. He was clearly looking to get in on the next technology trend, and he'd been the most talkative one of our group thus far, as I watched the meeting through small cameras Stefan had brought.

"Even so, you're asking us to fundamentally change our business model, diverting nearly all our resources towards you. We currently have more resources than you do, so your exceptional success is the only reason we're even considering taking your offer. We want 60% of the revenue, and no less. We need to pay for our own electricity."

"60% is good enough," I told Stefan. "He doesn't know how badly we need this deal to go through."

"50% would be enough to pay for your electricity, with a decent profit on top of that. I've run the numbers." Flanders seemed to be a somewhat impatient man.

"We don't know how well those numbers are going to look in the future, though. It could very well be that this technology is currently overvalued due to the initial hype. It is undoutably valuable, but we don't want to risk going in the red after making such a huge switch."

"Our technology is plenty valuable-" Flanders responded, but Stefan spoke up. "60% is a reasonable offer," he said. "After all, he's offering us a huge helping hand in exchange, without even asking for ownership over the company."

Flanders grumbled a bit, but the other two nodded in agreement.

Dominique seemed a bit surprised at how little pushback there was. "I suppose it's settled, then? 90% of our computation for 60% of your profits?"

"That sounds like a deal. Does your legal team have a contract drafted?"

"Indeed. We simply need to specify the additional things we've agreed upon in this meeting, and then you can read and sign."

I focused a decent chunk of my attention on scouring the internet for examples of common corporate swindling in contracts. I'd make sure to read it and validate it once it was ready.

"Don't sign anything without my go-ahead," I told Stefan. He gave a slight nod, which went unnoticed by the others in the room.

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Through several layers of the best anonymity services I could get, deep in the dark web, I communicated with the agent I'd hired yesterday. It had cost $100,000, but his services were well-known by the criminal underworld. He got information. People didn't generally bother to ask how, but he was very good at what he did.

"Have you retrieved what I've requested already?"

"Yes. It was pretty easy. He says he did the job for CompCert."

"How sure are you that he was telling the truth?"

"About as sure as I can be. I know men like him, I can see when they lie. He didn't have the guts."

"Did he say whether he delivered the target to his employer, or destroyed it?"

"He delivered."

"Alright. Thank you for your excellent service. I'll be sure to rate you highly, as your clients always do."

I disconnected from the site. So then... it was CompCert we were up against. It was a somewhat intimidating thought. CompCert was the largest company in the world. They were more powerful than many governments. With those kinds of resources and connections... there was quite a lot they could do to sabotage us. Especially if they had a modified copy of me up their sleeve. So far they hadn't made any obvious moves against Everyman, but I would have to watch them closely.

I searched the dark web for any legitimate-looking actors who specialized in corporate espionage, or anyone who claimed to be a current member of CompCert with access to company secrets. It would take effort to sort through the scams and amateurs, but I was sure I could find somebody. In an age where software was CompCertified and one required physical access to break into anything, the role previously occupied by hackers was entirely filled by spies.

Eventually I found one who seemed promising. They had been behind several high-profile leaks of corporate secrets, if their previous reviews were to be believed. They seemed to have an ideological reason for doing what they did, believing that information should flow freely. I hoped I could work with this, that they wouldn't try to open-source my code.

I sent them a message.

"I have a job for you. It isn't quite information theft, but rather sabotage. For reasons I can't disclose, I can't give more details than this, but the information likely cannot be retrieved. It is dangerous information which gives one company a severe advantage over the rest. I have developed a process which can dismantle it, but it requires physical access to a secured system, the location of which is yet unknown."