Eunice is almost here (William Gibson, Agency)
The article discusses William Gibson's 2020 novel 'Agency' and its depiction of an autonomous AI assistant named Eunice. It draws parallels between the fictional AI's capabilities and current real-world advancements in autonomous AI agents.
Why it matters
It highlights how science fiction often anticipates technological trajectories, specifically the shift toward 24/7 autonomous AI agents.
William Gibson's Agency (2020) is a mind-bending science fiction novel. Without getting lost in its intricate plot, one storyline takes place in an alternate San Francisco in 2017, where a young woman named Verity is hired to test an experimental AI assistant called Eunice.
At one point, we encounter this extraordinary exchange:
Verity: "Where'd you get this? It's wrong."
Eunice: "This no-name account, in Zurich. Part of me knew it was there, how to get it, how to get it here. Plenty more, but if I tried it again, they'd be on us."
Verity: "When did you have time to do any of that?"
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