The Doomsday Code

Riveting, tense, scrupulously researched. Sara Yager debuts with a unique blend of science-meets-suspense. She succeeds in giving readers insight into the brave new world of emerging technologies while reminding them that catastrophe could be right around the corner.

In an artificial intelligence lab in Shanghai, something has gone terribly wrong. Days after a major breakthrough in machine learning, CyberGen Industries' lead AI scientist is dead—and their precious prototype has vanished into ether. An investigation reveals that, against all odds, the lab's “unhackable” system has been breached.

The discovery, an algorithm mimicking human intelligence, is growing quickly—becoming more cunning and unpredictable with each passing hour. Soon its capabilities will eclipse its creators entirely.

Who stole it? And more troubling, what do they plan to do with it?

Ex-NSA hacker Adrian Pryor may be the only person on the planet capable of reining it in. He spent his career keeping the world safe, a vigilance for which he paid an enormous, personal price. Adrian knows there are people who will stop at nothing to control the powerful technology. He must find a way to do the impossible: to stop them, and to outmaneuver a rival more clever, more powerful, and more alien than anything he has ever seen.

Grounded in real-world science, Sara Yager’s wildly inventive debut brings advanced AI to life, illuminating a frightening, all-too-real truth about the future: we could be one breakthrough away from inventing ourselves out of existence.