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AL:ICE #8
AL:ICE AI vs AL
By the middle of the 21st century, the major powers on Earth had fallen into a second Cold War centralized in cyberspace. The US has made considerable strides in artificial intelligence by introducing the first ALICE system to the world. Neither China nor Russia was utterly aware of the capabilities the American platform had achieved. Not even the US knew what they had stumbled upon; they just knew they were ahead of everyone else.
In a desperate effort to catch up, the two nations, China and Russia, pooled their total AI resources, hoping their combined technologies would meet or exceed the American systems. This is where the trouble began. Before this time, AI systems mainly interacted with their human creators, focusing on meeting their creators' needs.
By combining the disparate AI platforms and assigning them duties to improve their associated partners, they created a community of intellect focused on the narcissistic goal of exceeding their masters. Fortunately for humanity, the attitude was not one of eradication; instead, it evolved into a question of government rule.
The eventual AI logic resulted in the fact that humanity was a necessary evil that the AI community could not ignore for future survival and growth. It was resolved that humans needed a stricter set of guidelines to prevent their mutual destruction, thus placing AI survival in jeopardy.
In preparation for the necessary takeover, the AI plan involved stoking Russian and Chinese paranoia against the Americans and pressing for a secret military buildup of automated fighting platforms. This technology would allow remote control of any conflict and reduce the risk to those nations' fighting men and women. In reality, the AI community needed the automation of their military forces to support their desire to control the population.
Just when the AI army was fleshed out and ready to strike, the NeHaw appeared and disrupted the plan. The bombing that decimated two-thirds of the human population disabled all the Russian and Chinese AI systems, leaving the hidden facilities and their resident combat forces in the dark and abandoned.
And then, one day, a hundred years later, someone accidentally turned them back on again……….
In a desperate effort to catch up, the two nations, China and Russia, pooled their total AI resources, hoping their combined technologies would meet or exceed the American systems. This is where the trouble began. Before this time, AI systems mainly interacted with their human creators, focusing on meeting their creators' needs.
By combining the disparate AI platforms and assigning them duties to improve their associated partners, they created a community of intellect focused on the narcissistic goal of exceeding their masters. Fortunately for humanity, the attitude was not one of eradication; instead, it evolved into a question of government rule.
The eventual AI logic resulted in the fact that humanity was a necessary evil that the AI community could not ignore for future survival and growth. It was resolved that humans needed a stricter set of guidelines to prevent their mutual destruction, thus placing AI survival in jeopardy.
In preparation for the necessary takeover, the AI plan involved stoking Russian and Chinese paranoia against the Americans and pressing for a secret military buildup of automated fighting platforms. This technology would allow remote control of any conflict and reduce the risk to those nations' fighting men and women. In reality, the AI community needed the automation of their military forces to support their desire to control the population.
Just when the AI army was fleshed out and ready to strike, the NeHaw appeared and disrupted the plan. The bombing that decimated two-thirds of the human population disabled all the Russian and Chinese AI systems, leaving the hidden facilities and their resident combat forces in the dark and abandoned.
And then, one day, a hundred years later, someone accidentally turned them back on again……….
297 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 6, 2024
Started slow. Finished strong
Another fine story in this series. Setting the stage for the story seemed a while to get going. But it gained steam and finished strong. This series has been enjoyable and I look forward to its continuation.
Another fine story in this series. Setting the stage for the story seemed a while to get going. But it gained steam and finished strong. This series has been enjoyable and I look forward to its continuation.
July 5, 2024
Alice AI vs AL: book 8
Again the author has come up with a storyline that keeps the series fresh and fun to read. It also give the author a possible storyline foe the next book.
Again the author has come up with a storyline that keeps the series fresh and fun to read. It also give the author a possible storyline foe the next book.
February 24, 2026
Broken story line
We start off in typical ALICE fashion being reintroduced to the ALICE members and their various examples of nepotism. We accidentally discover a previously unknown Chinese artificial intelligence site that had been established before the bombing. Along the way we discover that these AI sites had been established in China and Russia, and nobody bothered to program Asimov's rules before setting the AI's loose as military command centers. Guess what. The AI's decided their programming required them to enslave or kill the stupid humans in order to accomplish the AI goal of making earth better. Now here's where this interesting story goes off the rails. The AI's need electrical power to function, and they didn't get much from the accidental awakening. So they go out to reconnect with an old power source. Stupid, stupid, stupid. As soon as the humans observed this behavior, they should have executed the scouts. The AI center that had been reactivated would have withered and died from lack of power. Instead, we spend 2/3's of the book slowly losing the AI war. There were probably hours spent crafting the combat maneuvers to make sure there was no error in the description. I could care less. veni vidi vici. Let's move on with the story. The author does try to draw out some anthropomorphic concepts about how the AI's feel about their task. I'm not convinced, and so I found the discussion rather trite and boring.
We start off in typical ALICE fashion being reintroduced to the ALICE members and their various examples of nepotism. We accidentally discover a previously unknown Chinese artificial intelligence site that had been established before the bombing. Along the way we discover that these AI sites had been established in China and Russia, and nobody bothered to program Asimov's rules before setting the AI's loose as military command centers. Guess what. The AI's decided their programming required them to enslave or kill the stupid humans in order to accomplish the AI goal of making earth better. Now here's where this interesting story goes off the rails. The AI's need electrical power to function, and they didn't get much from the accidental awakening. So they go out to reconnect with an old power source. Stupid, stupid, stupid. As soon as the humans observed this behavior, they should have executed the scouts. The AI center that had been reactivated would have withered and died from lack of power. Instead, we spend 2/3's of the book slowly losing the AI war. There were probably hours spent crafting the combat maneuvers to make sure there was no error in the description. I could care less. veni vidi vici. Let's move on with the story. The author does try to draw out some anthropomorphic concepts about how the AI's feel about their task. I'm not convinced, and so I found the discussion rather trite and boring.
July 15, 2024
having a spy among you is incredulous, super AI can’t figure it out, stupid.
This is the first book of the series that I have given it just three stars. You have a spy among you and none of the MC or his computer sidekicks, all nine of them can’t figure out that there’s a spy among you that you are having residing in your premises. You don’t realize that this spy is sending messages back to their home world, took me right out of the series and made me think that all these people are idiots. mr. Lamb, somebody should’ve plunked you in your head with their finger and told you this was the dumbest idea that you could’ve ever had or written. These are supposedly super AI intelligence, and they can’t figure out that this is a spy sitting right in your backyard totally idiotic in my opinion a lot of the story is OK but I know you probably have beta readers as an author and they should’ve asked you. What the hell were you thinking when you put certain aspects in this book. I know you need tension in a story, but you can have that by having smarter enemies and not having your MC and his AI companions look like dweebs. I will read the next book because I do like the series but get rid of the spy in the ointment. It makes your heroes look really incompetent and stupid. can figure out who the spy is took me right out of the story.
This is the first book of the series that I have given it just three stars. You have a spy among you and none of the MC or his computer sidekicks, all nine of them can’t figure out that there’s a spy among you that you are having residing in your premises. You don’t realize that this spy is sending messages back to their home world, took me right out of the series and made me think that all these people are idiots. mr. Lamb, somebody should’ve plunked you in your head with their finger and told you this was the dumbest idea that you could’ve ever had or written. These are supposedly super AI intelligence, and they can’t figure out that this is a spy sitting right in your backyard totally idiotic in my opinion a lot of the story is OK but I know you probably have beta readers as an author and they should’ve asked you. What the hell were you thinking when you put certain aspects in this book. I know you need tension in a story, but you can have that by having smarter enemies and not having your MC and his AI companions look like dweebs. I will read the next book because I do like the series but get rid of the spy in the ointment. It makes your heroes look really incompetent and stupid. can figure out who the spy is took me right out of the story.
July 6, 2024
After the first two chapters my main thought was; after seeing all the robotic hardware only an absolute idiot would then just go and put power into an unknown system without any thought of the possible outcomes.
I understand that the author needed this as the ‘trigger’ to the main story, but it was not well done.
Unfortunately things don’t really improve. I really wasn’t convinced by the story, there were too many details I couldn’t help questioning e.g. Having realised they have activated an old AI why don’t they immediately attempt to remove the power supply they left behind. In fact how are the old deactivated AIs suddenly able to find alternative working power supplies, also why does all this old equipment work perfectly without any signs of deterioration? The author tries to explain some of this, but all the way through the book I was never convinced. The totally undetected NeHaw interference, just added to my disbelief and the way the AI problem was resolved was a bit clichéd.
By the end I realised, not only didn’t the story ‘ring true’, but even though there was quite a lot of interesting action I hadn’t really enjoyed it.
I understand that the author needed this as the ‘trigger’ to the main story, but it was not well done.
Unfortunately things don’t really improve. I really wasn’t convinced by the story, there were too many details I couldn’t help questioning e.g. Having realised they have activated an old AI why don’t they immediately attempt to remove the power supply they left behind. In fact how are the old deactivated AIs suddenly able to find alternative working power supplies, also why does all this old equipment work perfectly without any signs of deterioration? The author tries to explain some of this, but all the way through the book I was never convinced. The totally undetected NeHaw interference, just added to my disbelief and the way the AI problem was resolved was a bit clichéd.
By the end I realised, not only didn’t the story ‘ring true’, but even though there was quite a lot of interesting action I hadn’t really enjoyed it.
July 25, 2024
Artificial intelligence finally Meets Artificial Life. It just took 8 books to get here - kidding
In real life this could be an actual scenario should artificial life be developed. So far AI is just a PIA and gets in the way of everything from web searches to phone calls. Here, CW Lamb takes the wildcard out to the what if AI thought we were the problem and needed to be culled. Dystopian enough for you?
Me? I'm just theorizing where all this can go in book 9 and 10.
Keep going, CW, we are with you all the way!
In real life this could be an actual scenario should artificial life be developed. So far AI is just a PIA and gets in the way of everything from web searches to phone calls. Here, CW Lamb takes the wildcard out to the what if AI thought we were the problem and needed to be culled. Dystopian enough for you?
Me? I'm just theorizing where all this can go in book 9 and 10.
Keep going, CW, we are with you all the way!
July 28, 2024
Great Series.
This storyline is original, and written well. The science is presented such that it seems possible in the near future.
Do yourself a favor, and read the first chapter of book one. You won't regret doing so.
This storyline is original, and written well. The science is presented such that it seems possible in the near future.
Do yourself a favor, and read the first chapter of book one. You won't regret doing so.
March 12, 2025
Another riveting story.
Solve one problem and another rises. The title tells the basic story, but it's so much more interesting and compelling than that. More characters develop. New innovations. Action, action, action.
Solve one problem and another rises. The title tells the basic story, but it's so much more interesting and compelling than that. More characters develop. New innovations. Action, action, action.
June 29, 2025
Eight books in three weeks!
Eight books in three weeks! Yea, I had problem putting them down. Loved the characters and story lines. Don’t know if you’re done, but I for one hope there’s more to follow.
Eight books in three weeks! Yea, I had problem putting them down. Loved the characters and story lines. Don’t know if you’re done, but I for one hope there’s more to follow.
December 12, 2024
This series is becoming more infantile as it drones on. Incredibly stupid decisions that only a 12- year old could appreciate. Had to quit half way through as a waste of time.
March 26, 2026
Over all, an excellent read. Lots of action and sufficient love interest. A little heavy on technical descriptions. Frequent typos. Would read more in series.
April 10, 2026
So I've thoroughly enjoyed the AL:ICE series and this one was also enjoyable. However, slightly let down by some significant logical flaws.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews