Original Story

The Petrov’s are a married couple who built a biotech company in Boston. The CEO, Dimitry Petrov, 45, a doctor, was born into poverty in Russia. His wife Anastasia Shevchenco, 39, is Ukrainian and considered a genius in math. She is heavily involved in AI research. She is also a vocal leader in the global efforts to convince U.S. and foreign governments for the need to formally control the use of AI. She is a particular thorn in the side of the current administration which opposes any such restrictions. They have a daughter Anna, 19; she has a rare disease with no cure—Turner Syndrome which affects only girls and appears at birth. It has also left her with a serious heart problem. But she is very bright, brave, and committed to becoming a medical researcher. She’s a first-year biology and math major at Harvard. She now assists her mother in the company’s research over the summers.

The couple met while studying at a Russian university and eventually emigrated to the U.S. Dimitry worked as a visiting professor at Harvard at first. He taught science and business courses. Anastasia worked as a researcher at a biotech cancer company which ironically also had an early stage, preclinical drug for Turner Syndrome—but languishing in its pipeline for want of funding.

After ten years, the couple raised enough money to launch their own start-up: New Frontiers Therapeutics. Their company was seeking development of a new small molecule drug for cancers—mostly under Dimitry’s direction. It was a costly enterprise. Clinical trials are very expensive. Nine out of ten clinical trials end in failure. Dimitry traveled the globe raising money for their research from investors. He made a lot of promises about his technology. But he was also a slick marketer and had a burning desire to become rich. He was a handsome man who dressed well and made a good first impression on investors. But he was haunted and driven by his early life of poverty.

Anastasia, who had been nominated for a Nobel Prize in mathematics, was also working on an AI project for drug development. She believes an AI-based system could potentially allow for mimicking of the human body and its reactions to drug stimulations that could be used in new drug development. Her goal was to speed up this research by substituting their AI system for early-stage clinical trials. When she tells Dimitry about her initial successful research, they decide to slow down their cancer research and concentrate on developing their AI-system developed drugs. After three years of testing, Dimitry believed they had convincing data to take to the FDA for approval. They would then license the technology to researchers for a fee. Anastasia, who did the bulk of the AI research, is not convinced it worked. They need ironclad proof she believes and argue about what to do. Dimitry is undeterred—he wants the potential scientific acclaim and fees.

Secretly, he contacts his Head of Clinical trials Mykola in Belarus. The company has a lab there and conducts clinicals trials in cancer research to save money. He convinces Mykola to test one of their preclinical cancer drugs developed using their AI system. It had no previous human testing. Mykola chooses a young patient who volunteers to be on this one person trial. The patient is already in fourth stage lung disease and is desperate. This is unethical and illegal, but this “test” could give Dimitry more confidence in going to the FDA. After a month of testing, Mykola sees no safety issues and activation of some cancer-fighting cells in the patient.Elated, he contacts Dimitry with the news. Dimitry promises Mykola a substantial bonus if they win approval.

Confident now in its success and over the still strong objections of his wife, who now fears that the technology could also be used for some military purposes even if it works, a confident Dimitry submits her research to the FDA.

The FDA is very skeptical and are not prepared for such a seismic change in drug development despite the possibilities. There are many technical, ethical and science issues that have not been established yet. There are no recognized boundaries for control of the use of the technology. They tell Dimitry he hasn’t submitted nearly enough evidence for consideration. They also refuse Dimitry’s request for a public hearing. But they also see the potential negative uses of the technology. They contact the CIA and NSA. Both agencies are alarmed but excited at the potential uses for national defense. If it does work, it must be kept out of the hands of rival nations. The CIA sends a special science team to visit the couple. They tell Dimitry and Anastasia they work for the FDA, and FDA officials now think they may have acted in haste. Dimitry is encouraged by this thinking; perhaps the FDA may have changed its mind. Dimitry doesn’t even ask to see their credentials. They are in fact undercover CIA Case Officers. The senior CIA officer Is Willima Locke, a 20-year veteran, and Jennifer Lewis, a younger but better versed in science officer than Locke. They spend hours questioning the couple. The agents believe enough of Dimitry’s somewhat inflated story about their work to suggest the couple and their daughter come to the FDA in Washington and meet with higher-ups. Naively, Dimitry agrees and he, Anatasia and their daughter are driven to a private airport and board a private plane. Anatasia is very suspicious. After a quick flight to DC, the family is driven to CIA headquarters not to the FDA. Dimitry realizes now they have been tricked and “kidnapped” by the government. At Langley they are separated from Anna and brought to an interrogation room. They are met by a senior CIA official, Robert Brentwood. Brentwood assures the couple they are not under arrest, but since their technology, if proven, involved national security issues, the government believed it had to take immediate action.Brentwood asks if anyone else outside the family knows about Anatasia’s’ AI work.Dimitry lies and says no.Brentwood and his staff pepper the couple with questions for the next two days while a science team reviewed the research notes they brought with them. After two days of soft interrogation, Brentwood and the science team concluded that without more evidence they could not make a decision on the legitimacy of their work. But they could not take a chance of letting them go either.

Brentwood, Locke and Lewis meet with the couple the next day. Brentwood’s voice takes a harsher tone. They are told that whether the technology works or not their research will be seized by the government. Dimitry responds by demanding an attorney and says they have rights.The agents are silent.Eventually, the couple is asked to sign documents saying they willingly turned their work over to the government and pledging never to reveal its existence—all in the name of national security. Dimitry still doesn’t believe stealing their work is legal and says that their rights are being violated. “No, they aren’t,” Brentwood replies, “you have no rights because you are not U.S. citizens.” In truth Dimitry and Anatasia have permanent green cards but no U.S. citizenship. “And if I don’t sign this document?” Dimitry asks. “You will be turned over to the FBI, charged with espionage and incarcerated in federal prison for life. You may never see your daughter or each other again,” Brentwood replies.Realizing that, the couple has no choice but to sign if they have any hopes of being released.

Brentwood does hold out an olive branch and asks the couple if they would be willing to give up their biotech company and work in secret with government scientists on potential uses of their discovery. “What would the projects we’d be working on?” Brentwood is silent. Agent Lewis reminds the couple if they accepted the government’s offer, they would be great patriots, and they would be made citizens. But Dimitry knows the government may never let them go whether they agree or not. They are potentially too valuable. Brentwood “suggests” for their own safety the CIA would place the family in a government “safe house” under CIA protection and to think about the government’s offer. They reluctantly agree. But they also point out they needed to attend a cancer biotech conference in London where Anastasia was to make a major address on the need for government regulations to oversee AI development and the need for a biotech “AI similar” conference on control of the technology. “Her absence would set off alarms in the scientific community,” Dimitry points out. The government’s knowing of Anastasia’s reputation agrees as long as they have agency “chaperones”—and return to the U.S. right after her speech. Anastasia doesn’t tell Brentwood she had also agreed to an interview with the science editor of the Economist, an old friend in London.

Dimitry has no intention of becoming a CIA scientist, and they plan an escape from London where they have many friends and contacts. The couple cleverly tricked the government chaperones during the biotech meeting when a fire alarm is pulled right after Anastasia’s speech and there’s a stampede. They leave London and escape to Belarus with their daughter where they hope to continue their AI project at their lab. Dimitry is now thinking he could sell the technology to other rival governments, Russia perhaps, China or Iran. In the process Dimitry brings copies of his wife’s research notes, though Anastasia has committed the key research to memory. The couple leaves behind research notes for the government, which are flawed on purpose, so they are unable to recreate the process.

In Belarus, the couple explains to Mykola why they fled the U.S., and Mykola promises to keep silent. Mykola, however, has an old contact in the FSB (Russia’s Federal Security Intelligence service and former KGB) and sees an opportunity ofgetting more than a big bonus. They meet and Mykola tells the Russian about some interesting AI developments he’s heard about and may have access to. But he wants money for the information. The FSB man tells his superiors about his conversation with Mykola. The Russians are even more skeptical than the U.S. FDA but they want to be sure. The FBS promises ten million U.S. dollars to Mykola if he talks, and there’s proof the technology works. But he must also travel to Russia to meet their “science” team. Also driven by greed, he agrees. Belarus and Russia have excellent relations and travel to and from Russia is routine. Russians, however, send an undercover team into Belarus to “escort” Mykola. Once the train arrives in Russia, he is arrested by the FBS and brought to an abandoned army base. He is then beaten by the FBS for two days until he gives them the information about Dimitry, Anastasia and their AI technology. He tells the Russians the technology works and has tested it on a patient with good results. Still skeptical but encouraged with this misinformation, the Russians send another undercover team back to Belarus and kidnap the CEO, his wife and his daughter. They are sedated and taken back to Russia. When Dimitry wakes up, he first sees the bloody and beaten Mykola. Anastasia and his daughter are tied up and gagged and are sitting across the room. The FSB tries to question Dimitry about his technology. The CEO refuses to divulge any information claiming if he does, he and his family will be traitors to the U.S. government. Russian researchers listen in, but when Dimitry is not forthcoming, a KGB agent shoots Mykola in the head as an incentive. His wife and daughter scream and are taken away screaming.

The Russians didn’t realize by killing Mykola they lost the true outcome of the patient he had treated. By killing Mykola, they and Dimitry also don’t know that Mykola had contacted the Iranian secret service about the technology. He was hoping to start a bidding war for information.

Back in the U.S., the seized technology begins to undergo extensive research by government scientists first using it on animals. It didn’t work. The CIA believes they have been tricked again by Dimitry. They need to bring him back to finish the work. Through their “moles” in Russia, they find out where the family is being held—at a former Russian army base which also has a chemical warfare laboratory. The Russians are working on a poison gas based on the farfetched theory that a gas could be designed to only affect a population based on race, ethnicity, DNA and even only by geography. The research pace is slow because it requires a variety of human clinical subjects and the difficulty in designing such a gas. The Russians believe Dimitry’s AI technology could speed up the process.

Back at Langley, the CIA wants Dimitry back and decides a four-man CIA extraction team would go to Belarus and pretend they are on a fictitious military exercise with Belarusian special forces. They would extract Dimitry and his family and escape through Romania and return to a U.S. miliary base in Germany.Dimitry will be forced there to work on the technology. If the mission fails, their orders are to eliminate the whole family.

In Russia, the FSB decides to take a different approach to win cooperation from Dimitry and his wife. Knowing of Dimitry’s greed they switch tactics. They offer him a deal. Russia will announce that they have defected to Russia. They will also give them their own lab and a research team to continue their AI and cancer work. They also offer test patients, who are really condemned prisoners. If they can prove the technology works, they will be released and allowed to live in Moscow in a comfortable home with a very high monthly stipend. They will be free to come and go in the city for the rest of their lives. They will also be free to announce the success of their technology at a Russian biotech conference so the world will learn of their stunning scientific achievement. They will also allow the technology to be licensed out to other countries for a fee and a share of the profits.

The Russians, of course, have no interest in the technology for medical reasons and no interest in sharing it.

Dimitry and his wife do not trust the FSB, but they seemingly again have no choice. They agree but tell the Russians the testing could take months. The Russians say one month. Before they start, Dimitry finally confesses to Anastasia that the last thing Mykola told him was that the patient he tested died horribly a month after of an unknown cause. Anastasia is devastated, and they now see themselves in an even more hopeless situation.

Work begins in the Russian lab under Anastasia’s supervision, but she keeps two sets of notes—one phony set for the Russians and one for her. Her daughter assists in the lab work. After three weeks, she tells the Russians she has found why the AI technology was flawed initially and believes she can correct it

Meanwhile, the CIA extraction team has successfully landed in Belarus close to Russia and crosses the border into Russia. They find the base where they believe Dimitry and his family are being held.

The team overpowers the base gate guards and take two prisoners as they cautiously make their way inside. Their prisoners show where the family is being kept. Dimitry and his family are awakened by the rescuers. However, an alarm goes off, and they all are surprised by Russian soldiers who were summoned by an unaccounted prison guard. A close-quarters firefight breaks out. Bullets fly. All the Russians and two Americans are either killed or wounded. But Dimitry is also very badly wounded by the bullets or shot on purpose by the CIA team or the Russians. He is dying. With only a few moments left to live, Anastasia tells him she thinks she really has solved the AI technology problem. Dimitry smiles and shakes his head at what could have been. He finally realizes his greed has misguided him. Meanwhile, there is a large explosion. A few remaining Russian guards had been under orders to destroy the lab they were working on if there was an emergency. The CIA team hears a large explosion and rushes to the site of the destroyed lab. Another firefight breaks out and the Russians are killed. But the damage has been done.

Thinking that all the research has been destroyed, the Americans consider liquidating the wife and daughter as ordered. But Anastasia convinces them she is the inventor of the technology, and she can recreate her work from her notes and memory. Not sure what to do now, they decide to bring her back with their wounded comrades and get further instruction from Langley. They shoot the wounded Russians and leave.

At the base in Germany, Anastasia, who is distraught by the death of her husband, is questioned for hours. She sounds convincing to the CIA officers, but there is only one way she can prove her story. She would have to show scientific evidence that the technology does work. Anastasia feels increasingly trapped and demoralized after Dimitry’s death.But if she proves the AI technology works, she still doesn’t trust the U.S. government to use it for peaceful purposes. She’s in a moral dilemma. For the sake of her daughter Anna, however, she agrees to go back to the U.S. with them and work in their lab.

In the U.S. she works with her daughter and CIA scientists. Anna keeps notes. The CIA keep pressuring them for results. After three months, Anastasia finally tells the CIA that after repeated attempts, she cannot yet provide the government proof that the technology works. After recreating all her steps in the lab, government scientists confirm that her system does not appear to work at this stage.

Brentwood and the CIA officials have egg on their faces. They have invested time and lives in the Petrov’s alleged AI invention fantasy with little to show for it. It also leaves them with a problem—what to do with Anastasia and her daughter. The question is answered for them.

While most of the media attending the biotech conference in London where Anastasia had spoken about the need for government regulations of AI had moved on from her speech, the science editor at the Economist tried in vain to contact her. She tried the Petrov company, who didn’t know the family’s whereabouts. She tried contacting her scientific colleagues with no luck. Suspicion took over and the editor wrote a story about her disappearance. Other reporters picked up the story. Some theorized that Anatasia’s call for federal relegation of AI had led to her arrest by the U.S. government or even foul play by opponents of her AI positions.

With all the media pressure and the failure to produce results, the CIA concluded that holding her and her daughter was not possible. She was reminded that she and her husband had signed documents prohibiting them from releasing any knowledge or information on their AI scientific work. The penalty was life imprisonment for both of them. Anastasia and her daughter are released but would be kept under government surveillance for five years.

After returning to their biotech company, she can only keep a skeleton staff. Without Dimitry’s fundraising ability, the money eventually slowed to a trickle. She and Anna still believed in the technology and continue the work.

Eventually, she connects with the persistent Economist reporter. Anatasia agrees to meet at her company. She has to decide if she will risk telling her story and potentially bringing a new streamlined technology to the drug development industry and face imprisonment for doing so—or take the story to her grave. She tells the reporter she may be arrested for revealing what has happened. The reporter assures her that if the story is indeed true, once the news is out the government won’t dare touch them.Anastasia tells her story to the reporter. The reporter calls the CIA for comments before running with it. The CIA denies everything. But the story grabs the attention of the public and is picked up worldwide. As a result, donations to continue the research pour into the company from patient groups and rich and poor individuals. These and a GoFundMe effort started by the Economist reporter result in millions of dollars.Anastasia also continues her crusade for AI to be regulated and controlled.She is invited on news and talk shows. Though there are still skeptics since she hasn’t proved the value of her research.

Anastasia also continues her crusade for a global conference to discuss AI regulations. She warns that she believes the Russians wanted this technology for military purposes. All the more reason for the need of an international review of AI regulations. She is invited to address the audience at the annual JP Morgan health care conference in San Francisco. The investment bank sends a car to take her to Logan Airport in Boston. There she will take JP Morgan’s private jet to San Francisco. But there is an “accident” on the Mass Pike on the way to the airport. State Police Investigators and the FBI forensics conclude the driver somehow “fell asleep,” lost control and crashed headlong into a retaining wall. Everyone is killed. No further official information is released. The driver was a very recent Russian Ukrainian immigrant. The story makes world news, and few believe it was an “accident.”

Anna mourns her parents’ deaths, but with the donations the company has received, she begins to restaff the company and recreate her mother’s work from her notes. In addition, she now has the resources to buy the one early-stage drug research for her rare disease, Turner’s Syndrome. She also picks up her mother’s mantle for the need for regulating AI research. She is quoted in industry publications worldwide. She also doesn’t believe her mother was killed by an accident. Perhaps the Russian’s or perhaps the CIA. Congress decided to launch an investigation into the “accident,” though the U.S. government blocks all attempts to gain access to critical information about the accident. Not to be denied, Anna convinces her local Congressman for the need to open a House hearing on what has happened and subpoenas the CIA to a closed-door hearing. The CIA initially refuses. Then it relents and sends to lower-level staffers to deny everything again.

Despite the revelations and Anastaisa’s accident, the administration also continues to block all federal AI regulation until 2029 when a Democratic Congress begins to review AI regulation proposals.

In 2030 with the help of her mother’s lab notes, Anna submits her AI research to an enthusiastic FDA.