Crystal Nights by Greg Egan (gregegan.net) AI

“Crystal Nights” (by Greg Egan) follows Daniel, who unveils a single-processor photonic crystal AI platform and recruits Julie, a top AI researcher, to help “evolve” conscious, human-level artificial intelligence. Their negotiations quickly turn into an ethical debate over intervening in minds via evolution-like selection, including concerns about suffering and moral responsibility, as Daniel argues the alternative could be worse than his planned, carefully managed approach.