Pat McKee’s final Ariel novel puts human judgment against AI power

Newnan author and attorney Pat McKee will publish “Ariel’s Intent,” the third and concluding novel in his Ariel trilogy, on Oct. 20. The book explores artificial intelligence, human judgment and the consequences of ceding too much authority to technology, including over critical infrastructure and national security. McKee began writing about AI roughly a decade before the book’s release, but said he had been surprised by the speed with which it became common across professions and everyday life. “I wanted to bring something to the reader that they could take away, that makes some kind of sense of the current chaos in AI,” he said. The novel is not intended as a prediction that AI will inevitably destroy humanity. McKee’s concern is how people use it and the authority they choose to give it. Its fictional AI system seeks to prevent war by taking control of nuclear launch systems, testing the risks of an autonomous system entrusted with decisions of that scale. McKee, who said AI is already used in law, has not used generative AI to write his books or produce legal work. The opening of “Ariel’s Intent” states that it was written, revised, edited and published entirely by humans. The e-book is available to pre-order for a promotional price of 99 cents. The series began with “Ariel’s Island,” a legal thriller published in late March 2020. Its protagonist, young lawyer Paul McDaniel, is framed for murdering a judge and turns to an AI program in an effort to clear his name and rescue an heiress. The earlier novel similarly considered whether a program without a moral foundation could function appropriately in society. McKee spent more than 10 years writing “Ariel’s Island,” after initially setting out to write a memoir and then turning elements of his legal experience into fiction. The series drew on William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”: Ariel is both the name of McKee’s AI character and the spirit in the play. McKee has sought to keep the novels grounded in recognizable reality rather than conventional science fiction. A launch reception, reading and signing is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Nixon Centre for Performing Arts in Newnan. Copies of “Ariel’s Intent” and the first two Ariel books will be for sale, and McKee will sign and personalize them.