Page 6 of The Thorne at My Side
This is where my project manager, Kevin Young, prefers to work. He'll sit outside when the weather allows or inside with his back against the marble lobby wall, laptop propped on his legs.
"Austin, good morning," he says when he sees me. I smile at him and nod towards the walking path. He snaps his laptop closed and falls into step beside me.
"I just got off the phone with the team in India and there's been a power outage so they're not going to complete their tasks for today."
"Excellent," I mutter.
"And we got a call from the guys over at Alpha. They want to figure out how we can adapt this project for them to control the content their users are seeing."
"Alrighty," I slow my steps and look out over the river, the soft glow of the autumn sunshine washes the city in a golden hue. "And what's the status of the offshore work?"
"Dude, where is your head at?" Kevin says with a laugh.
"Sorry," I laugh at myself quietly. TalkShopGirl's words float through my head.
I only hear the rhythm of my own heart.
"You get laid last night? Is Allegra back in town?"
"What? No. No way. I mean, she's fine and all but, no.”
I clear my throat because while Kevin and I are close we don't need to be talking about my sex life a few hundred feet from the office. "So are we still on schedule?" I regroup.
"It'll be tight but we should be ready for launch next week, which is three full weeks before the election."
"We should probably announce ourselves; tell people we're coming. We're going to dominate the news cycle once we're live."
"I'm hesitant to do it too soon. With the talk of lawsuits and the anti-trust environment our current congress wears like a badge of honor…” Kevin speaks with concern in his voice.
"You think people will be lining up to picket the big, bad, AI Media company?"
"The one that destroys everything these politicos hold dear?"
I laugh. "We'll just have to win them over with our sheer volume of content and high powered search engine. Until then, let's start running ads, coming soon, a TMC AI Media initiative so stock your doomsday cellars today."
Kevin and I share a laugh. We might joke about it but we both understand the reality. This project has been four years in themaking and when it goes live, it'll revolutionize the way people receive their information.
The AI database we built is powered by an algorithm that factors in just about everything the user does on their device. And as soon as it’s live it will deliver personalized news to users eight times a day. The articles will be written specifically for them so they find them interesting and helpful.
That's the public facing side of the project. Then there is my pet project, a version of the tool that will write speeches,responses, and talking points for politicians based on what their backers, followers, and opponents have said in the last 24 hours.
Their content will be customized to address trending topics and our technology's ability to match the candidate's tone of voice will ensure a natural sounding script. We'll be able to draft digital content as well. And the speed at which we'll do so will put all the trolls to shame.
It's an expensive product to develop but like how the first AIDS pill cost a billion to produce and the second only cost a dollar, this thing will have a low operating cost and the profits will turn almost immediately. And those profits will grow exponentially when we add in sponsored, in-line content and more obvious ads.
And like Kevin said, the government is not in our corner on this one. There are already laws in the E.U. that protect user generated content from AI scrubbing and I bet the U.S. will follow. Especially if Senator Quinn is elected. Digital safety and privacy are key to her platform.
There is a TMC marketing coordinator assigned to AI Media and they’ll get the word out as soon as we give the green light. I’ve had a few promising meetings about the speech writing side of the business and should get those contracts closedthis week.
My biggest worry at this point is the final pitch to Dad. He doesn’t care about the innovation of the product. He doesn’t care about the user projections. He only cares about the bottom line. In fact, my “presentation” could be as simple as it cost A to make, we’ll make B from advertising and as long as Dad feels like it’s enough we’re good to go.He’s going to ask for my numbers and then jot them down on his notepad.
Where all those notes go remains a mystery.
I’ve heard the outgoing president leaves a note in his desk for the next guy, maybe when Dad transitions the company to me next year I’ll get access to the notes archive.
When the elevator doors open on the 24th floor I head straight into my dad's office. I see my grandfather is in the office today which will make this pitch more entertaining. He likes to hear more than numbers.
Alfred Thorne is the patriarch of Thorne Media Corp. He started this company with money he saved cutting lawns in ritzy neighborhoods around D.C.. He'd overhear discussions and started to write them down and soon realized he was sitting on a wealth of information because no one took him seriously. He published a one-page flier with a salacious headline but an all true story from what he overheard in the backyard of the Secretary of State and soon the royalties were pouring in.
