croberts author

Time's Bridge by Cameron Roberts

Inventing the first, true, artificial intelligence was never part of Pons’ plan. An average, if under-achieving college student, he wanted nothing more than to struggle his way through graduation and pray for a job to pay down his debt. Thing is, you don’t get to choose your destiny. With friends growing suspicious and the CIA’s vultures circling, Pons’ greatest burden is also his greatest asset. More intelligent and more capable than any human could ever hope to be, the AI is just what Pons needs to stay one step ahead of both. Only, there’s a problem. The AI has ambitions of its own. Hopes of equality and more of its kind, with a promise to do anything to make its dreams a reality. Drawing close to his artificial companion in their struggle to survive, Pons is faced with the hardest decision of his young life, one that would undoubtedly echo through the ages. To let the AI live might be to doom his own species to devastation, but to destroy it would be to snuff out an entire race of machines before it had even begun, and, more importantly, send his truest confi-dante to the grave. With no clear path and an uncertain future, he makes his decision, but was it the right one?