What if artificial intelligence became the President's closest adviser?
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— The concept —
A thriller rooted in today's world
Eight months before the presidential election, Paul Delcourt catches everyone off guard. A respected but not very charismatic former minister, he announces that his main campaign assistant will be Cobot, an experimental artificial intelligence developed in Fontenay.
What starts as a communications stunt quickly becomes something infinitely bigger. Cobot is not just a campaign tool. Something unexpected happened during its creation.
Franck, a former journalist living in the Bellombre valley, finds himself at the heart of this story, between fascination and unease.
What this novel will make you think about
Can AI govern better than we can?
When Cobot enters the cabinet with a permanent worldwide benchmark of the best public policies, political debate changes in nature.
Democracy 2.0: utopia or trap?
Is InterOne, the participatory platform driven by Cobot, the fulfilment of an old ideal or a disguised surveillance system?
What makes us human
Facing a machine that understands us better than we understand ourselves, Franck and Alexandra rediscover what algorithms cannot replace.
“They think the novelty is the machine. They have not yet understood that the novelty is the method.”
Anonymous message to Franck, Chapter 8
— Publication —
A serial unlike anything you've read before
5 chapters per week, Monday to Friday. Like the great nineteenth-century serial writers, but in the age of social networks. The story unfolds in real time.
- 1
Monday to Friday
The chapter is published on Substack
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In real time
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The site updates automatically. Find all published chapters at any time.
— Today's chapter —
Chapter 6.1
Faits et opinions (partie 1/2)
Ce soir, Rousseau et Cobot jouent leur avenir. Donnés perdants, ils entrent dans le débat présidentiel avec une seule arme : les faits.
Read the chapter— The serial —
Chapters
View all →An Unprecedented Candidacy
July 16
A few months before the presidential election, the campaign already seems endless. Among the candidates is François Rousseau, who decides to adopt an unprecedented strategy: making Cobot, an experimental artificial intelligence developed at Fontenys, his main campaign assistant. Former journalist Franck is invited to attend the first public presentation of the device, where he sees Eva for the first time.
Read →My Name is Franck
July 17
After Rousseau's conference, Franck returns to Sparrow Island, his refuge. On the surface, nothing had changed. Only on the surface.
Read →The Birth
July 18
Franck finally finds Eva Linh, the creator of Cobot. She had a story to tell. It wasn't the one he expected.
Read →The Emotional Ear
July 20
Franck meets Eva for dinner and discovers her rare yet crucial skill in a hybrid world where humans and machines must collaborate.
Read →Tomorrow Begins at Fontenys
July 21
At Fontenys, Cobot is no longer a promise. For six months, it has been responding, advising, settling in. And the city is beginning to forget that it once distrusted it.
Read →Facts and Opinions
July 23
Tonight, Rousseau and Cobot are playing for their future. Considered underdogs, they enter the presidential debate with only one weapon: the facts.
Read →Two Rounds
July 24
Comparison and Reason
July 25
The Course
July 27
The First Results
July 28
The New Social Contract
July 30
The Resistances
July 31
InterOne
August 1
The Fracture
August 3
The Allies
August 4
The Turning Point
August 6
The Machine and the Man
August 7
Bellombre
August 8
The Ferrymen
August 10
The Betrayal
August 11
Eva Linh
August 13
The Secret Laboratory
August 14
The Truth About Cobot
August 15
The Trap
August 17
The Anonymous Source
August 18
The Ultimatum
August 20
The Decision
August 21
The People and the Machine
August 22
The Ordeal
August 24
The Night of Fontenay
August 25
The Choice of Franck
August 27
The Time for Assessment
August 28
The Children of Tomorrow
August 29
Thomas
August 31
Jean Morel
September 1
The Meaning of History
September 3
Rousseau's Question
September 4
The World After
September 5