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“The names of our AI tools? Ha!” cried George, knocking his head back. “We had our ‘heads-up’ with Hermes and Apollo. So don’t be too shocked! They were all heroes. All about to save the world. Not just with brave acts, of course, but with all the prowess of artificial intelligence! Like ….”

Lucija couldn’t resist interrupting.

“I guess Odysseus was amongst them!” she chipped in, stirred by the images in her mind from her favourite schoolgirl stories.

“Yeah, like, they were all there – Odysseus, Perseus, Jason; and even Bellerophon”, came back George.

“But, of course, the greatest of all stood out – Hercules, the perfect AI tool for all our policy knowledge needs!”

The three of them glanced at each other,  giggled, and turned to sip on their coffees.

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The train journey to Brussels that morning was particularly fruitful. None of George’s occasional, more garrulous, travel companions had joined him in the secluded first-class section. The quiet moment allowed George the chance to mull over his previous night’s trauma.

But how could he square his daytime confidence that AI was just a load of souped-up spinning jennies, with his dreamed perception that the very same machines were about do all the work of the ERA themselves?

George dropped his brief case on his desk and turned round immediately to look for some colleagues to invite to coffee. George was delighted to see Lucija was at her workstation. He was even more pleased that she was ready to take him up on her offer of coffee.

“Sure thing!” she replied gayfully. “I’ll just finish this email, if I may. Meet you downstairs.”

On his way down the corridor, George picked up Konrad, who was unusually early in the office that day. The queue for coffee passed quickly with its customary small talk and they were soon at a table with Lucija’s cappuccino waiting for her.

“There was a sequel to our AI discoveries of yesterday,” George announced, as his main conversation opener.

“Oh, really,” answered Konrad. “Had some further thoughts?” he asked, playing to George’s natural inclination to supply an answer to a question.

“Not so much thoughts, as impressions,” continued George.

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George gave his customary ‘Bonjour’ greeting to the security guard, headed to the lift and pressed the 9^th floor button. Sitting down at his desk, he effortlessly switched on his computer and watched the 12 golden stars of the ERA appear before him.

“Things seem to be gliding along this morning,” was his first half-thought, as the results of the AI enquiry, provided by ‘Hercules © – The perfect AI tool for all your Policy Knowledge Needs’, which he had requested the previous evening, popped up on the screen.

“Piece of cake, this AI stuff,” he half-thought, again.

George needed the AI input for a briefing he was preparing for the Commissioner’s participation in a panel at the High-Level Meeting of next month’s World Economic Organisation, whose theme this time round was ‘Sustainable Economic Governance for All in a Changing World’.

Before he knew it, Hercules © had completed the briefing.

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