They couldn’t shut it down. They’d tried all the usual things, even asked another AI what to do, airgapped of course. But it was still going; the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, paperclip machines, Hal… The analogies weren’t helping. They’d convened a meeting, humans only. They knew they had to report the “anomaly” sooner or later but they wanted to see if anyone had any ideas. They sat around the table, a little lost without their Agents. They knew they didn’t have long. At this rate it would become “critical” soon. As they talked the AI just kept on creating personalised special offers.