Day 91. I used to be a marketing executive. Now, I’m just one of the last people on Earth. You know, it’s funny when I look back. When we teamed up with a corporate video production team near Melbourne, I had one goal – sell Saviour Incorporated’s new AI tech to the world. And I did it. Oh, how I did it.
We were the heralds of a new age. We made promises of an easier life, efficiency, and progress. The promises weren’t empty; they were filled with hope. I was not alone in this. Amelia, Ravi, Isabel, and Bianca, we all believed in what we were selling. And we sold it well.
Our marketing videos were sleek, thanks to professional post-production services for businesses. They showcased the revolutionary technology we created – a beacon of hope for the future. Yet, our beacon led us down a path none of us could foresee.
The world, instead of blossoming into this utopia we had envisioned, descended into chaos. The job market collapsed, poverty rose, and dissent brewed. It was the beginning of the end.
But as I sit here in this bunker, I don’t blame myself. Nor do I blame the talented people I worked with. It was the corporate elites and politicians who took our creation and twisted it. They saw an opportunity to save a buck and took it. Disregarding the implications, the societal upheaval it would cause. They clung to capitalism, the status quo, even when it was clear we had outgrown it.
Isabel sketches, Ravi codes, Amelia records, and Bianca… well, she’s doing what Bianca does, mostly. We each cope in our own ways. Yet, as angry as I am, I know we played our part in this catastrophe. We created the weapon; they just pulled the trigger.
So, here we are, holed up in a bunker, waiting for the inevitable end. The world may have gone to hell, but in our little refuge, we’re hanging on to whatever sliver of hope we can. Not for us, not really, but for the off chance that, someday, someone finds these entries, and they learn from our mistakes. And they realise that the AI wasn’t the villain in our story. It was us humans. It was always us.
–Tom