Mark Sable and Jeremy Haun have both been responsible for some pretty interesting stories, so it’s great to see them combine forces on Boxed, a new graphic novel coming next month from Comixology originals.
Boxed is about a (not so) distant future where AI is widespread and sometimes breaks bad, so the FBI has an anti-AI division that “boxes” up rogue AI when needed. The story features colors by Nick Filardi and letters by Thomas Mauer.
“Much of Boxed is inspired by my work with military and intelligence agencies as a futurist for the Atlantic Council,” said Sable. “Artificial Intelligence software is shaking up our times, from Chat GPT to Midjourney to Open AI, these entities are becoming more immersed in our everyday reality not only replacing what humans can do, but blurring the line between human and machine intelligence and the capabilities are not to be underestimated.”
Here are the details from Comixology:
BOXED is set in a near future, when more and more AI have begun to grow smarter and more dangerous at an alarmingly rapid rate.
In BOXED, former FBI counterintelligence agent Frank Savage is a RAID (Rapid Response, Artificial Intelligence Division) Special Agent who is called in when an AI is suspected of having evolved or deviated from its programming. If he determines there’s any threat, he shuts down and “boxes” the AI – storing it in a vast, electromagnetically shielded underground cavern where it can’t be reactivated or tampered with externally.
When Hippocrates, the C.D.C.’s (Center for Disease Control) AI in charge of pandemic response, goes rogue and starts a lockdown over a non-existent pandemic, agent Savage is tasked with stopping it. He is forced to team with Pandora, a counter-intelligence AI he boxed years ago…but not before she seduced him.
BOXED is a grounded, sci-fi techno-thriller that is based on very real fears about AI that is very of our time.
Here’s a preview:
The graphic novel will debut on the platform on Nov. 21.