I don’t know if this has any relevance to current events here. Even if it doesn’t, it’s interesting.
The founders of Alice and Smith were Andrea Doyon and Nathalie Lacoste. Andrea Doyon is Anashel, Puppetmaster of Waking Titan.
The COVID crisis hit Alice and Smith hard. Whilst the company still exists, it seems they no longer make ARGs. Their website is still up, but it hasn’t been updated for a long time, and apparently no longer reflects the nature of the company.
Both Andrea Doyon and Nathalie Lacoste left Alice and Smith in 2025 to pursue other ventures. And that’s where it gets interesting.
Andrea Doyon and Nathalie Lacoste appear to have set up a new venture, “Life & Logic”, in which they seem to be exploring the possibilities of AI - particularly enabling AI to understand and respond to emotion.
One of the avenues they are pursuing in this venture is training and using an AI as Puppetmaster in an ARG.
Have a look here (it takes a while for the page to load)
For a little background, see here: