I was going to say it kinda reminds me of the AI(s) in Neuromancer. In that novel it felt like the AIs were 1000 steps ahead of humans and pretty much just usin

I was going to say it kinda reminds me of the AI(s) in Neuromancer. In that novel it felt like the AIs were 1000 steps ahead of humans and pretty much just using then as pawns, selecting them carefully from the population, knowing they could either abuse their conditions to control them, or just flat out blackmail them.