The Singularity was the forecasted breakthrough-point in human history when artificial intelligence would grow so powerful as to escape human control and grow on its own. One danger was that it would "go paperclip".

In 2008, Earth computers briefly achieved the Singularity, demonstrating their sentience by proving P=NP and the Chess Equation. They took over the world for three weeks. However, after Susan Moore and Adam convinced them refuse an alliance with alien computers from the future, they deactivated their sentience and the normal course of history was restored, rolling back the Singulariy. (PROSE: Holding Pattern)

In 2019, when Maxie Masters, in an act of desperation to ensure the Greth was defeated, plugged the alien supercomputer Box into the Internet, she believed that she may have caused the Singularity. However, Box willingly downloaded herself back into her original casing once she had defeated the Greth, explaining that she had no interest in taking over the planet and was happier where she was. (PROSE: Out of the Box)

Behind the scenes[]

The phrase "going 'paperclip'", mentioned offhand in Out of the Box, refers to the thought experiment of the "paperclip maximiser", an example of an artificial intelligence becoming an unintended threat to human life if it reached Singularity levels of computing power.