Sarah Martinez had been Governor of California for three years when the world started unraveling. She watched from her Sacramento office as President Trump's second administration unleashed a trade war that made his first term look restrained. The tariffs weren't just punitive—they were surgical, designed to cripple the interconnected networks that powered the modern economy.
But it was the European Union's response that truly terrified her. The Algorithmic Accountability Act wasn't just legislation; it was an existential weapon aimed directly at Silicon Valley's heart. Every AI system trained on copyrighted data would face statutory damages. Every job displaced by automation would require lifetime compensation. Every biased algorithmic decision would carry personal liability for executives.
Marcus Chen, CEO of Nexus Technologies, received the preliminary settlement demand on a Tuesday morning. His assistant, Jennifer, brought the forty-seven-page document with h