Cloudthinker by Andrew McGlinchey

SPSFC 2023

Numbers don’t lie. But people do. Seasoned journalist Parham Nasiri is convinced there’s something sinister behind tech giant Magenta’s new product, Cloudthinker. The AI service can do anyone's job and is decimating the workforce, sending shockwaves through an already fragile economy and tightening Magenta’s grip on society. After his employers subscribe to the service and put him out of a job, Parham becomes determined to uncover the truth. His digging into Cloudthinker's origins leads him to Boogie Wu – an enigmatic math genius who died in a corporate jet accident – and he’s ensnared in a web of mystery and deception. Tangled up with a corporate whistle-blower, a human-like autonomous hacker, AI-powered robots, and the increasingly blurry line separating humans from software, Parham confronts the world-shaking consequences of Magenta’s real intentions. He’ll be forced to make impossible choices to stop the world from tipping into crisis...

Set in the very near future, Cloudthinker is a propulsive new thriller that confronts big tech, memory and consciousness, and what it means to be human.