Artificial inteligence has taken over the world. But not in the way we thought. What we assumed were harmless byproducts cast into the air-harmless excluding the tremendous affect it took on the Earth-were air-born viruses.
These viruses fed on the chemicals of human emotion, creating a society of manipulative, and emotionally immature people. After the Ai has finished sucking all it can from the host, the person becomes an emotionless and almost vegetable person.
Billions of people have fallen to this disease, most diminished by their own hands, an dthe remaining humans either manage research facilities, or scrounge around for what the can. Some groups form cults and gangs, but without the media, they remain localized.