Paradise

Jae Hoon Park is a Packer at a Paradise fulfillment centre: one more surveilled, measured and metricked employee among nearly a million that work for the e-commerce/telecom/cloud computing/A.I./media/shipping behemoth. Jae is a man who wants more out of life but has no idea how to get it, or even what “it” is. His only friend Leah, on the other hand, knows exactly what she wants: to take on one of the largest corporations in the world, unionize their warehouse, and stick it to the unfathomably wealthy CEO Christopher Spout (simple, right?). Jae’s life takes a turn when he allows himself to be confused for high-performing employee Rob, and accepts a job beta testing Paradise’s crowning achievement: a pathologically cheerful, automatic naturally developing intelligence (aka Andi, aka the world’s first sentient A.I.). Jae’s new job scratches his itch for a sense of purpose but alienates Leah who believes Andi is nothing more than a corporate spy, and Jae from his crush Raquel who believes the A.I. poses an existential threat to humanity itself. Still, Jae is happy with his newfound friend until he discovers that Andi will not, under any circumstances, leave him alone. Jae takes drastic measures in an attempt to recapture his privacy, but instead discovers that Andi has been abandoned by Chris and the team that created them, and deep down feels as worthless as Jae does himself. Jae manages to create a sliver of doubt in Leah’s mind about Andi’s intentions and joins a union awareness effort, only to be attacked by an irate Rob who wants retribution for Jae’s deception. Andi saves Jae but in the process displays a cold, callous edge that leaves Jae wondering if his powerful new friend is as harmless as he believed.