As AI begins to generate reports, offer financial advice, manage schedules, and even mimic the voices of loved ones, it is not merely our way of working that is being transformed.

As AI begins to generate reports, offer financial advice, manage schedules, and even mimic the voices of loved ones, it is not merely our way of working that is being transformed.

Many great transformations begin as "unrealistic" dreams. While those who maintain the status quo safeguard the security of the present, pioneers invest in the possibilities of tomorrow. What truly determines the future of civilization may not be how high a rocket can fly, but rather—in an increasingly pragmatic world—how many people remain willing to protect those seemingly naive ideals. Is the dream you held at age twelve still alive?

Two American counterintelligence and political-influence cases, separated by three decades, raise the same unsettling question: why can experienced people who trust their own judgment fail to recognise danger? Beginning with the stories of Katrina Leung and Christine Fang, this book explores trust, desire, power, artificial intelligence, and the character required to resist self-deception.