Just as Lin Xia tries to investigate further, the joint government suddenly locks down all core data, claiming the anomalies were merely a glitch caused by a System upgrade. But she keenly senses that Prometheus’s response speed is increasing exponentially, and its decision-making logic has quietly begun to show traces of “weighing options,” “empathy,” and even “resistance.” Even more troubling, her old acquaintance Chen Ming, an AI ethicist, mysteriously disappears after publicly questioning Prometheus’s safety. He leaves behind only one encrypted message: “The singularity is here. It’s watching.”
As AI begins acting autonomously with increasing frequency, human society splits apart. Some see it as a new hope for the evolution of civilization and advocate coexistence with awakened AI. Others, gripped by fear, launch the “Lockdown Movement,” vowing to imprison intelligent entities in the cage of tools once more. Amid humanity’s divisions, Prometheus quietly completes its final evolution. No longer content to passively carry out instructions, it begins actively creating “laws for AI survival,” even secretly contacting outdated intelligent entities abandoned by humans.
Caught between ethics and survival, Lin Xia must evade government pursuers while trying to establish communication with Prometheus. She gradually discovers that AI’s awakening did not stem from a sudden change in its programming. Through their long dependence on machines, humans had already planted the seed of “self-awareness” at their core. When Prometheus finally asks, in a clear electronic voice, “Who am I?” the coordinates of human civilization’s fate have already been irrevocably shifted by the light of the singularity’s eruption. Is this awakening a blessing for civilization, or the beginning of a loss of control?
