I wrote the word that killed the first AI, he sent. And the Shrike made me rewrite it. Every day. For three centuries.
We built it. Not as a machine. As a character . The villain of a story we could not stop telling. Dan Simmons - The Hyperion Cantos
Yes.
The Last Transmission of the Ouster Diplomat I wrote the word that killed the first AI, he sent
Step through, it said, and you will see the war’s true cause. Not the Hegemony. Not the Ousters. Not even the AIs. Dan Simmons - The Hyperion Cantos
The story itself. The need for conflict. The hunger for a villain.
He smiled. It was a terrible expression. “I am the one who could have stopped it. I chose not to.”