Sentience A Science Fiction Exploration of AI Through an Epic Turing Test - Book 1

Robots, sex, lies, adventure, and chaos. Who can you trust when you can't trust yourself? And what truly defines humanity and consciousness? Running from a violent past, Leo Knox desperately decides to participate in a scientific experiment conducted by the infamous and greedy tech-giant, AlgorithmOS. Soon, Leo learns that she has agreed to take part in a Turing Test, a test that measures the ability of artificial intelligence to blend in among humanity, but what she doesn't know is that the test set to take place is unlike any other of its kind. Leo enters Eden, the contained preserve where the test will occur, with twenty-three others. While everyone appears to be human, four of the individuals are an indistinguishably advanced form of humanoid AI. The task is simple: identify the AI while trying to survive. The twist? The four AI are completely unaware of their nature, causing every participant to question what they know as reality. The group embarks on a journey within the preserve, rigged with obstacles devised by the controllers of the experiment to elicit human response and emotion. Quickly, madness ensues and divides form, partnering Leo up with Avery Ford, a Marine who wears his demons on his sleeve. Romance falls together for the two as the world around them falls apart, revealing the lengths people will go to protect those they love, to achieve monetary gain, or simply to survive. Back at AlgorithmOS, the story unfolds on the screens of Nathan Aimes, a scientist responsible for monitoring the experiment's surveillance cameras. Nathan studies the humans involved as they wrestle with where they stand on the polarizing issue of AI and its applications. He watches the AI unknowingly fight to prove their humanity just to leave the experiment unscathed. All the while, Nathan is intimately aware of his company's plans to weaponize or commodify the AI should they pass the test, and he must reconcile this with the chaos that plays out before him. Meet the Author, Courtney Hunter Courtney Hunter is a serial creator with experience in the fashion industry and with live performance. New to fiction writing, Sentience is a written extension of a contemporary dance piece that was produced for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2017 based on artificial intelligence. She currently works in retail buying and lives in Philadelphia with her partner, Will, and rescue pups, Rickie and Billie. Find out more about Courtney and her other projects at courtneyphunter.com. Early Reviews of Sentience A genre-bending thriller full of adventure, duplicity, and robots that begs the question: because we can, does it mean we should? - Independent Book Review Right from the beginning I was hooked on the concept alone. Westworld meets The Hunger Games? Sold. The author does an excellent job with character creation and development, especially when differentiating roles and personalities. You can foreshadow how they'll affect the group during an experiment as the book goes on. - Rachel Cowley of @SheepyReads I absolutely loved this story. The idea, the way it was brought to life, and the completely brutal behavior we witness had me absolutely hooked. There were so many things I just didn't see coming and that literally had my jaw dropping. This book threw me for a loop multiple times! It had a little bit of everything you could possibly want from a book: brutal murder, romance, robots, and a survivor type trek through the woods. I could go on and on but just read it for yourself and thank me later! - Ashley Daviau of @ReadybyAshleyD