The World Summoned Bots. I Summoned Myself.

At 11:47 p.m., Lu Chen had exactly 23.60 yuan left in his bank account. His landlord had sent a final warning. Debt collectors called every ten minutes. Outside his window, the most expensive billboard in Linjiang City repeated Echo's new slogan: “@OmniBot—any problem answered in three seconds.” The craze had conquered the world in seven days. People summoned bots to write love letters, analyze stocks, and ask their bosses for leave. Eight of the top ten trending topics involved calling an intelligent agent. Lu Chen turned off his phone and laughed without humor. Three years ago, he had been the youngest systems architect at Skyvault Technology. A third of Echo's personality-routing framework was his work.