The spread of generative AI was driven by its supply much more than its demand.
For lots of people, it was easy to be dazzled into thinking it was the technology of the future, despite it having more to do with a parlour trick.
And, with Canada's new nuclear infrastructure, there was no limit to its applications. So companies started sticking it in whatever they could; medical technologies, translation services, graphic design, animation, weather forecasts.
This we saw with our own eyes, as every radio station began reusing the same set of synthetic voices, and as cartoons on the TV became a liminal facsimile of what they once were.
For most, with all the things that could be accomplished with it, AI nearly seemed like magic, like a cure-all remedy.
But at the end of the day, a parlour trick will never be anything more than an illusion.
On that night, the overwhelming trust people and companies had placed in this technology finally collapsed in on itself.
Death by a thousand cuts that no cure-all ointment could ever fix.
After the dust had settled, and after gauging the magnitude of their losses, the public started to call for a witch hunt.
Some blamed human intervention, while many more blamed the industry that had allowed this technology to grow rampant.
The mysticism with which AI was seen was now aimed at the opposite direction.
The once miracle technology was now seen as "the devil's work" as several anti-technology campaigns began to surface.
Governments decreed a ban on, not just generative AI, but any AI model that looked too similar in their eyes, as well as severe reprisals for all the tech companies that had developed them.
This we saw with our own eyes, as more and more of the industrial park began to be abandoned, and as mom was forced to take longer and longer shifts to make up for the deficit.
Many would lose their job, their houses, their families.
The worst economical depression in decades.
In truth, we were lucky to have mom's job, as she was seen as too indispensable to be let go of.
Not many like her in Balmorey, though.
Only ones I know being her, Niktés mother, and Mr. Pelletier.
And many would say it wasn't just the ban, but a multitude of independent factors that drove us to this situation.
But let's not kid ourselves.
Canada was a tech country first.
CITA alone was the number one biggest employer in the world by several orders of magnitude.
Slicing two thirds of its body ought to have had consequences.
And the shiny new town that promised such a bright future for its residents?
Slowly, it too began to be abandoned.
Only ones remaining being the stubborn ones, the lucky ones, and those whose lives hadn't even begun yet.
So it doesn't matter how you look at it. That night would change our lives forever.
