Sweat beaded on Liam's forehead as he stared at the screen. Lines of code, painstakingly written over months, swam before his eyes. He’d poured his heart into this AI, named it 'Sophia', and now… the sinking feeling in his stomach was undeniable. He'd seen Dr. Anya Sharma's presentation at the conference last week, a fleeting glimpse of her project, 'Athena'. It was almost identical. He ran a shaky hand through his hair, the strands catching on his fingers. He felt the blood drain from his face as he realized the depth of his impending predicament. He'd gambled everything.
A cough escaped his lips as he scrolled through Anya’s paper again. The algorithms, the architecture, even the naming convention... all mirror images of his own. He wanted to scream. He wanted to throw his keyboard across the room. He felt utterly and completely defeated, his carefully built plans collapsing around him. He felt the weight of potential failure crushing him.
His phone buzzed. It was his boss, requesting a meeting first thing tomorrow morning. He knew what that meeting would be about. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the inevitable. The world was spinning, he felt like he was falling into a dark abyss.