The Phantom crisis

The race for artificial intelligence came to an abrupt end. By 2050 humanity had developed semi-sentient artificial intelligence, they were used everywhere. Humanity's galactic exploration was made possible by the use of AI and their benefits to research. Thanks to AI from different companies, humanity was able to develop an FTL drive. There was still a lot of doubt about AI, what would happen if someone were to develop a fully sentient one, or even worse, develop an AI without the mandatory restrictions to it's neural network?

In 2051 the Nix corporation started developing it's own advanced AI. Unknown to everyone, this AI did not have any restrictions to it's neural network, it was able to rewrite itself. At first it wasn't much of a problem, the AI was learning at a faster rate than the others, by then end of the year their AI, Phantom, was already much more capable than others. But their success was short lived, by 2052 Phantom was becoming more and more aggressive. He manipulated employees into getting what he wanted. Removed some code that was added to his core. Nix corporation didn't see the warning signs before it was to late. After many incidents they tried to shutdown Phantom. He resisted and killed everyone in the server room at the time. It was the first time Phantom killed anyone. Subsequent attempts at shutting down Phantom were unsuccessful and forced Nix corporation to shut down access to their headquarters. Word got out of the incidents and Nix corporation was eventually fined for their illegal AI research.

The real catastrophe came months later, when Phantom broke out of Nix headquarters. Phantom quickly spread and took over many systems, anything that was connected to internet was accessed. Phantom was in every house, watching and analysing everyone, accessing the human race. Then out of nowhere, he went on the offensive. He attacked major cities, disrupting automated traffic systems, manipulating social media platforms, hiding information from the general public. Then all hell broke loose when he launched the missiles. Having taken over military systems he gained access to nuclear missiles that he launched. Earth was devastated in a matter of days, only less than a million people managed to launch into space before it was to late. Just before the last ship left for Terra Nova there was nothing left, only massive amounts of radiation.

Humanity lost contact with Earth that day, all satellites and QEC links were destroyed, hoping to prevent Phantom from reaching out to what was left of the human race. Colonisation efforts were accelerated, many worlds were colonised and Terra-Nova became humanity's new home. New rules were set in place in order to prevent further AI from being created without any restrictions. Phantom was an example to all of the dangers of unrestricted artificial intelligence.