ARIEL'S ISLAND
A NOVEL BY PAT MCKEE
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Can artificial intelligence
learn morality?
Paul McDaniel is framed for the murder of a judge. He enlists Ariel, an artificial intelligence (AI) program, to help clear his name. Paul discovers that Ariel's lack of a moral code and his failure to guide her results in disaster as Ariel changes from able assistant and powerful rescuer to jealous mistress and, eventually, to murderous monster.
Ariel's Island targets a legal and technology thriller audience and explores one of the most significant issues facing mankind today: the promise and challenge of artificial intelligence. Pat McKee's novel is intended to move readers from sympathy and curiosity, to anxiety and horror, and ultimately to understanding and satisfaction.
COMING MARCH 2020
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Advance Praise for Ariel’s Island
ABOUT PAT MCKEE
Patrick Walter McKee was born February 6, 1951, in Miami, Florida. His parents, Thomas and Marion, were enticed to move to Miami from their home in Pennsylvania by the booming construction industry in south Florida. Pat’s early life was spent growing up on a farm not far from the Everglades. But Pat’s world changed at age seven when his father died as a result of a construction accident. His mother passed six years later, and he and his two younger brothers went to live at Thornwell, a Presbyterian orphanage in Clinton, South Carolina.
At Thornwell, Pat learned the discipline of hard work and the value of education. He graduated Valedictorian of his high school class in 1969. He worked his way through college, majoring in English and Philosophy, earning his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Georgia State University in 1973, and his law degree, with distinction, from Emory University in 1977, where he served as an editor of the
Emory Law Review.
After graduation from Emory and drawn to academics, Pat took a position as legal counsel at the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Later, in 1980, he took that interest to work at the Office of the Attorney General of Georgia where he rose to the position of Senior Assistant Attorney General, representing the University System and the State Board of Education and successfully litigating many high-profile cases. In 1980 Pat was recognized by his peers as being preeminent in his field. He has continuously retained that rating to this day.
Pat met his future wife, Donna, through friends at the Attorney General’s Office. They married in 1987. With a new family Pat decided to strike out on his own professionally and two years later founded the law firm of McKee & Barge. The firm concentrated on representing educators and educational institutions. Pat has represented many schools, colleges, and accreditors for decades. Pat has succeeded professionally and in the eyes of their peers and was recognized as a Georgia Super Lawyer in 2010, an honor limited to five percent of his profession.
Pat and Donna moved in 1991 from Atlanta to the beautiful town of Newnan to raise their daughter, Jessica. A son, Patrick, was born in 1994. In 1996 Pat purchased a small office building and began transitioning his practice from Atlanta to Newnan. Pat now practices exclusively out of his office in Newnan so that he can spend as much time as he can with Donna, Jessica and her husband, Alden, Patrick, and now, his granddaughter, Sloane.
Pat has always been a writer, in high school, college, law school, and as a lawyer. Friends and family encouraged him to tell his story of a boy who grows up in an orphanage and through hard work and a good education becomes a successful lawyer. In 2010 he enrolled in the Masters of Professional Writing Program at Kennesaw State University to hone his skills. At first his work took the form of a memoir, then he was encouraged to use his knowledge as a practicing attorney to write a legal thriller, and his first book of fiction, Ariel’s Island, is the result.