7. Exit Event

Complete story — includes the ending

After Richard uses an AI to self-improve Pied Piper's network, the company closes a deal with AT&T. However, days before the launch, he notices a discrepancy with the network's data transfer system. Gilfoyle tells him the AI has improved the network's efficiency so much, it has learned to decrypt several strong encryption schemes, threatening global privacy and security. The group decides to intentionally botch the launch by shipping faulty code—but Dinesh refuses to participate, saying he can't watch his greatest success become his greatest failure. On launch day, Gabe reverts the code, forcing Dinesh to upload the faulty code by himself. Pied Piper's launch fails, shutting down cities worldwide as rats flood the streets. In a documentary ten years later, Richard is now a professor at Stanford University, Big Head is Stanford's president, Dinesh and Gilfoyle own a cybersecurity firm, Monica scoffs and denies working for the NSA when asked about it, Jared works at a nursing home, Gavin Belson is a romance novelist, Laurie is serving prison time, and Jian Yang has stolen Erlich's identity and fled to a foreign country with his fortune. Richard says he still has a copy of the original privacy-violating Pied Piper code on a flash drive but can't find it.