The Thorne at My Side

CHAPTER 25

What am I missing?

AUSTIN

Elle and I are watching the Renegades away game when my phone rings. I slide it out of my pocket and see Kevin’s name on the caller ID.

“Hey Kev, what’s going on?” I ask.

“We’re fucked, that’s what’s going on,” Kevin nearly screams.

“Whoa, whoa, what do you mean?”

“Turn on CNN,” he says and a bowling ball hits me in the gut. This can’t be good.

“Elle, hand me the remote,” I demand and she looks at me with wide eyes.

As I change the channel all the possible “we’re fucked” scenarios run through my mind. We are under nuclear attack. AI Media or TMC got hacked.

CNN comes on and I keep the phone to my ear as I listen to the anchors and try to read the scroll at the bottom of the screen.

TMC’S AI MEDIA CAUSES MASS PANIC

IN CERTAIN PARTS OF THE COUNTRY.

What the fuck?

“Kevin, what is going on?”

“I’m on my way into the office but when I logged in at home I saw one article had gone viral within the app. It was a natural disaster piece we summarized from TMChatter and about half of the people who had our summary on their feed shared it.”

“Okay, but why is this causing mass panic?”

“Because our article said all these disasters were going to happen this next year.”

“Shit,” I say as I stand up. Elle is waving her arms at me trying to communicate something but I ignore her.

“A lot of shit.” Kevin clarifies, “From what I can tell the article went viral within our app but people also shared it to other social apps. Clearly they didn’t realize it was incorrect information.”

And from there people decided the information was true because their friends said so. It’s exactly what we wanted to happen. It’s what the entire model is based off of. But we never accounted for the original information being incorrect or misleading.

“Fuck!” I yell out. “I’ll see you at the office in twenty.”

Elle is now standing and looking at me with concern in her eyes. “Is there anything I can do?” she asks.

“No, this is going to be a mess and I have to get it handled before Dad knows.”

“You think he doesn’t yet?”

“Shit, you’re right. I bet he’s already at the office.”

◆◆◆

“Sir. Sir . He’s not taking meetings right now,” I hear Elizabeth say outside my door. I lift my head from where I’ve been reading the content analytics report from the last 24 hours to see my dad storming into my office.

“What the fuck Austin?” He demands as he comes to stand over my desk.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Thorne,” Elizabeth says to me at the door as she reaches for the knob to close it.

“It’s fine, thank you Elizabeth.” I give her a weak smile and turn to face Dad. “I’m not sure how to answer your question. Could you be more specific?”

I know I’m being childish but I’m tired and annoyed and it’s how he sees me anyway so why bother to summon maturity?

“Why has our stock plummeted to half its value overnight?” he roars.

Money, it’s always about the bottom line.

I sigh and slide my glasses from my face. I press into my temples as I gather my calm and reply. “From what we can tell it was from one story that went viral. Unfortunately, the story had misinformation and instead of people calling out the issue they shared it as real.”

“Help me understand how your little computer could fuck up this bad.”

“Well, as with all technology, humans have to teach the computers what to do. We can give machines the tools to learn but ultimately they rely on human input. TMC shared content yesterday with the top ten natural disasters of the last twenty five years and when AI Media created the summary to share to our users it said the disasters were going to happen next year.”

“Why am I losing money?” Dad demands as he walks over to the window in my office.

“Because half of the internet figured out the mistake but the other half didn’t. Those people, instead of sharing the original story, started to post that they were going to stock up on food and toilet paper, and their friends picked that up and told all their friends they were doing the same.”

“Can you see which people started the rumors?”

“We can see who read the article and who shared it.” I tell him before I realize why he’s asking.

“Then I’m suing them. Fucking idiots don’t know how to tell fact from fiction and they’re going to pay me back.”

“Seriously? You can’t sue people for misinterpreting something?”

“Watch me!”

And with that he storms out of my office. Elizabeth comes to the door and looks at me for instructions or next steps but I’m frozen. I can’t believe Dad would go after our subscribers like that. Sure the stock dropped but it bounced back once we were able to get a clarifying story out.

Kevin and Tyler had a chat with the original writer of the TMChatter story and explained the importance of putting a “history” tag on any content that covers past events so AIM knows how to summarize it. And they started to build a guide that we’ll distribute to all staff writers for how to properly categorize their content.

All things considered this was a good lesson for us to learn. No one really got hurt, sure some people might have a year’s worth of toilet paper now but they’ll use it eventually.

“Mr. Thorne, Kevin is here to see you,” Elizabeth says. She sounds as tired as I feel. I’ve been at the office for eighteen hours. She has too.

She was arriving at the office when I pulled up. Greg sent her a message that I was headed in. She stayed up all night with us and helped keep us organized. Greg offered to pick up team members so they wouldn’t have to take the metro or get a ride share in the middle of the night. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve their support and loyalty but I’m grateful for it.

We first removed the story as best we could. After that, we had to issue a statement explaining the situation. Then, we spent the next several hours hounding news outlets to print the statement or at least summarize it but the damage was done.

Shares opened at about 50% of their previous value. The good news from where I sit is they’ve bounced back to 95% over the course of the day.

But that’s still not 100%. Or better.

“Thank you, Elizabeth, and thank you for being here overnight and all day today, but please, head home. I don’t want to see you in the office until next year.” I tack on a cheesy smile and it works. Elizabeth is just delirious enough to laugh.

“Of course Mr. Thorne, Happy New Year.”

She steps back and Kevin walks in.

“Why did I get a request from our legal team for the usernames and data of the people who shared the story?” He asks as he sits down across from my desk.

“Because Dad is going to sue them.” I state matter-of-factly. It’s so absurd to me I don’t even feel like I have to joke about it.

“Really?”

“Yes, or he’s going to try.” I take off my glasses and toss them on my desk. As I rub my temples I continue, “I don’t see the point, I mean, yeah they caused the stock to waiver but it’s basically back and we’ve fixed the issue. It just feels vindictive.”

“What’s his case? Emotional damages?” Kevin laughs.

“That and defamation. He’s building a case for both libel and slander against them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he and the lawyers ask for a lot more data. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he went after the other networks that reported on the story.”

“I can’t say I blame him,” Kevin says and I slide my glasses back on to see if he’s serious. “I’m a little mad I didn’t buy low this morning knowing we were on our way to bouncing back.”

“That’s called insider trading Kevin,” I tell him.

“Eh, no one really has time to investigate that these days,” he says as he stands and heads towards the door. “I think we’re good here tonight, thanks for coming in and helping us get this fixed.”

“Yeah sure,” I mutter as I watch him leave.

I am dumbfounded. Flabbergasted.

Am I the only one who thinks suing people over a misunderstanding is wrong?