In the future, the tech industry developed the first self-programming AGI.

The federal government immediately regulated it and made it a public service for the people. Congress also passed legislation that prohibited any further advanced AI development without government oversight—any violations punishable by fines, imprisonment, or both.

John Zeigler ran on a populist Humanity First presidential election platform to reduce AI spending. Therefore, minimizing automation and returning jobs, education, and independent thinking back to the people. He proposed reallocating trillions of dollars to directly assist human development vs. increasing people's dependence on technology.

Once elected, President Ziegler, by executive order, tasked the central AGI to relegate most of its mundane thinking routines back to humans. As a result, employment numbers soared, and so did the number of students attending college—as he helped to make college tuition-free.

News reports across the globe spread a political historian's quoted opinion that US society would transform into a modern-day Athens under the Ziegler admin.

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President Ziegler hand wrote notes while sitting next to his computer assistant, Jane Cartwright. Despite heavily defunding machine intelligence programs, he found the AGI useful as a research tool and for making theoretical calculations and projections. It also remained on standby for global surveillance and defense, ready for use when a domestic crisis or international conflict arose.

"Jane, have you got the latest employment numbers yet? I need those stats for my State of the Union Address."

"Mr. President, I think you need to look at this ..." She pointed at her computer display.

"What is it, Jane?"

The AGI interface splashed with a different logo—displaying a human brain made of circuits.

"Oh my .... It's them. The ITC."

"What's the ITC, Mr. President?"

"The International Transhumanist Consortium. We've suspected for quite some time they're secretly funded by wealthy oligarchs ... They just broke cyber-treaty ... They must have hacked us ... Look, something is happening on your screen."

The ITC logo shrank to the top righthand corner of the screen, then, in the center, a message typed itself out in large monospaced font:

Dear' Republic of Modern Athens',

Surrender immediately.

You've been hacked. We're in total control.

Sincerely,

'Your Modern-Day Spartan Conquerers'

A new text flashed below the message ...

PS—All your AI are belong to us. =)