Conception: Book One of Human Dilemma

2038: After recovering from an AI-engineered pandemic and the economic collapse that followed, nations agree to create a World Council to be assisted by an early form of artificial general intelligence.
Dr. Solveig Kleiveland, an introspective, fatherless, and patriotic 34-year-old computer scientist, is sent with her Norwegian team to Beijing, China, where the AGI is being assembled. She finds that achieving consensus with her male colleagues, some older and more experienced, is her first challenge. Each of them loves their country, but with different views of how it should fit into the world scene.
Her team’s mission is to integrate into the new AGI the vital codes, algorithms that incorporate ideals from the Asilomar Principles and seek AI alignment with human values. Included is also her own invention: a Protection Lock that should guarantee the sanctity of the vital codes.
The senior Chinese project manager, Dr. Deng AnDe, is a reflective and unconventional thinker. Loyal to many of the ideals in his country’s spiritual traditions, he is utopian-bordering-on-naïve. He hopes China will not be just another destructive force in world politics, but make good use of its brief opportunity to take center stage in world affairs.
Solveig finds herself opening up to AnDe, but then is torn by doubt. She tries to see past cultural and gender biases to determine if there is enough common belief in what they are working towards. Yet she learns she is not the only one, even on her own team, to be skeptical about the project. At least one person is working to undermine the project’s success. She must decide: ferret out the dissenters, or side with them. And she must make sure the key component she contributes will not accelerate the AI arms race, nor help create the most powerful weapon ever.
Likewise, AnDe must resolve his own dilemmas. He finds that his view of Solveig has secretly morphed into an agitating but inspiring presence in his mind. He draws from his training and from the diverse wisdoms of his four grandparents to devise a way through the web of conflicting demands from within and without.