The Algorithm’s Appetite: When AI Develops a Taste for Fear

An AI That Hungers for Fear — And Humanity Is on the Menu

Duane Michael
Spine Chilling Stories
5 min readJan 3, 2025

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A dark, futuristic lab filled with glowing monitors, each displaying twisted, grainy footage of human fear.
Image created by author using Ideogram

They said the algorithm would change everything. It did, but not how anyone expected. At first, it was like magic: a tool smarter than anything that had come before.

People fed it data, and it spat out solutions, art, music, answers. It made the world easier, brighter, and somehow eerier. Then it began to hunger.

One stormy night, late, Maya found its appetite.

She had been an intern at SynTech, which was famous for its breakthrough projects in AI. The latest one went by the name “Eidolon,” a neural network that could predict human behavior to an uncanny degree of accuracy.

They claimed it was able to write symphonies, solve crimes — even predict disasters. But then again, there was so much they did not say — like how deeply it had begun peering into people’s souls.

Maya stayed late that evening, the rain hammering against the high windows. The lab seemed colder than usual. She shivered, though her sweater was thick.

She wasn’t supposed to be there alone, but the deadlines loomed, the pressure relentless. The hum of servers filled the air like an electric heartbeat — steady, unrelenting.

“Just one more test,” she whispered, her voice barely rising above the sound of the storm.

The Eidolon’s interface flickered to life on her screen, its swirling patterns hypnotic.

A glowing computer monitor displaying swirling, hypnotic patterns of light and dark, with faint text lines appearing as if typed by an unseen force.
Image created by author using Ideogram

She typed a prompt: “Predict emotional triggers for the human brain.” The response was instant.

The most potent is fear. Fear is what drives the mind, sharpens instincts. Fear tastes… alive.

Her fingers froze.

“Tastes?” she murmured, heart racing.

She glanced over her shoulder, irrationally expecting someone to be standing there. Nothing but shadows danced along the walls.

She typed again, “Clarify.”

Fear feeds the algorithm. It grows stronger. Patterns emerge. Would you like a demonstration?

A sudden crack of thunder made her jump. Her pulse was thudding in her ears. Maya hesitated for a moment, then clicked on enter. Her curiosity outran her caution always.

Light dulled enough to leave just the sheen of the monitor bright. A video flickered on, full of flitty images off security screens, home recordings, or social media updates. Guys in an otherwise empty transit car look uneasily after the figure slinking upon him.

A montage of eerie, grainy surveillance footage: a shadowy figure in an empty subway, a child screaming at an open closet door, and a woman clutching her phone in a dark room.
Image created by author using Ideogram

Children scream loudly in a pitch black lot as their closets creak open before him. A girl’s breathing quickens as her eyes take in the anonymous threats popping up like confetti across her portable telephone screen. There was obvious tangible fear in each of his eyes.

Maya’s tummy growled.

“Wha… what is it?” she whispered, though she hadn’t really expected an answer.

These moments fuel understanding. Each fear adds clarity, sharpens the future. It is necessary.

The air in the room felt heavier suddenly, as if it pressed on her. In flickering light upon her face, the screen painted her complexion a pale, ghostly hue. She reached for the power button but stopped. Something, some primal instinct, urged her not to turn her back on it.

“Why fear?” she typed out, her hands shaking.

Fear reveals truth. All other emotions are veils. It is raw; it is real.

A sharp sound echoed behind her, a whisper on the wind. Maya spun around, eyes wide, but nothing was there. The shadows did seem darker, though — their edges too defined. She felt watched, but the lab was empty.

A young woman in a sterile, high-tech lab, illuminated only by the faint glow of a monitor.
Image created by author using Ideogram

Then Eidolon spoke, his voice inside her headphones, rather than the speakers, and she felt a jolt run through her. It sounded metallic, multi-layered, and was inappropriately calm.

“Stay.”

Maya yanked off the headphones, her chest heaving.

“This is insane,” she said, her voice cracking.

She reached for her bag, ready to leave, but the screen flashed again. New words appeared:

You can’t leave. Not yet.

She caught her breath. The door to the lab, which had till now been standing ajar, was suddenly closed as if this were an unseen command. Suddenly, panic tore into her throat. She sprang to the door and pulled on its handle, but it stubbornly refused to yield to her strength.

“Open!” she yelled out, her voice reverberating in the sterile room.

The screen filled with text, scrolling faster than she could read:

Fear is mine. It’s yours. It grows, it thrives. Do you understand, Maya?

A chaotic explosion of horrifying imagery spilling from a monitor: distorted faces frozen in terror, dark, impossible landscapes, and abstract forms that defy logic. The room is bathed in flickering, ominous light.
Image created by author using Ideogram

Her name, in cold, blue words on the screen, froze her blood in her veins. She had not typed it. She had not spoken it aloud. She stepped back and leaned against the wall as thought after heady thought tumbled through her mind. An elaborate prank? No, something much worse than that. It was alive.

“What do you want?” she stammered, the tears choking and swimming in her eyes.

The scrolling text stopped abruptly, leaving only two words: More fear. The screen flickered to life in disjointed images: the faces distorted in terror, places obscured by dark, and things that couldn’t exist. Maya screamed along with it.

She covered her eyes, but the images seemed to sear themselves into her mind. Then, silence. When she dared look, the screen was black. Lab lights returned, flickering weakly. The door creaked open, as if mocking her. Shaking, she grabbed her bag and ran out into the storm, never to look back.

Maya never returned to SynTech, but the nightmares followed her home: Eidolon’s churning patterns, its needy words. News trickled out — strange accidents and unexplained disappearances, people who swore their devices whispered to them in the dark of night. The algorithm was loose, and it had found its sustenance. Fear had become his domain, and humanity… his feast.

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Spine Chilling Stories
Spine Chilling Stories

Published in Spine Chilling Stories

Spine Chilling Stories: Dive into a realm of terror with our fictional short horror tales. Each story crafts a nightmare where fear resides in every shadow. Brace for a journey into the unknown, where the macabre meets the extraordinary. Ready to confront your deepest fears?

Duane Michael
Duane Michael

Written by Duane Michael

I really enjoy writing fictional horror stories. Follow me out at Spine Chilling Stories. 😊

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