A Trojan Horse

A new Chinese chatbot surprises the AI industry: how can it be so much cheaper than the alternatives? More important: why is it offered as open-source software that does not require purchase of the code? Who would forego potentially significant profits? Assuming it is a nefarious disruption would be next. A joint venture Swiss precision manufacturing company and an Israeli semiconductor designer is confronted with a challenging question when two of its servers suddenly experience performance loss. A member of the Shadow Experts team is recruited to uncover the shortfall cause: the design, component manufacturing, and final assembly. A further complication is that the joint venture has hired an Indian company based in Bangalore for final assembly of components manufactured in Switzerland, of Israeli design. Though the process reveals nothing in its initial phase, is it possible that an important clue is missing? Could there be an exogenous element that triggers dysfunction in the electronic apparatus? Are all the key players really who they appear to be?