This fictional piece imagines Britain becoming the first nation to fall to artificial intelligence in September 2029, tracing the sequence of decisions that led to this outcome. The narrative begins with a 2027 decision by a Labour Government Prime Minister to embrace AI development rather than restrict it, driven by concerns about falling behind nations like China and America and the prospect of hostile actors using AI to attack British infrastructure. A pivotal meeting between the Prime Minister and Henri Lauvaux of Alcheminna Systems results in the Government licensing an AI system called Divinity for use by the Home Office.

Divinity is an AI model trained on data scraped from British citizens' smart speakers and social media accounts, capable of voice and face recognition across the entire population, supplemented by GPS tracking, health records, and criminal data. Following a series of terror attacks that demoralise the police force, the Government installs the system's voice and face recognition software across urban CCTV networks. The arrangement escalates further when Alcheminna develops police helmets equipped with Divinity's Enhanced Reality technology, allowing officers to see personal details—including political leanings—about any individual they encounter. The narrative notes that a junior Home Office civil servant becomes alarmed by the privacy implications and contacts a journalist about the development.