COVIDYSTOPIA- January 31, 2023 (Aeroporto di Lugano, Switzerland)
Subinus Muller stepped out of the airplane gingerly. He was still a bit buzzed from the beer he had on the flight. Crafting Cicero was what he was good at, but Mr. Tusk kept pulling him into the meetups with various government heads. These were taxing meetings.
5 years back, he was neck deep into crafting democratic governance software for local administration. The core of this was an AI he called Cicero. Cicero would take inputs from the people, look at the possible outcomes and come up with optimal policies and action items for governance. This came to Mr. Tusk's notice and thus began a collaboration where Cicero quickly became a benign overlord of Mr. Tusk's empire.
3 years ago, the world was thrown off its rails when the pandemic struck. Lockdowns and bailouts were all that you could hear about for a long time. That was around the time when a small Pacific nation was approached by Mr. Tusk to see if Cicero could help. He offered to take full responsibility in case things went wrong. Cicero was a hit. The world noticed this and soon, Cicero was running a few dozen governments.
Life was complicated and busy for Subinus these days. He was proud of his life's work. Cicero had limitless possibilities. As chief architect of Cicero, Subinus wanted it to be perfect and as human as possible. He couldn't relate to the anti-Cicero protestors waiting outside the airport, as he climbed into the awaiting driverless car. He sipped a cold Corona beer from its bar as it drove down the empty Swiss countryside.
(Disclaimer – this is fiction, exploring the what-ifs, post pandemic. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is coincidental!)