Another Murderbot adjacent work; see also the short story, "Obsolescence".

Wells's homepage listed her short fiction, including a reference to this podcast; I found it was an episode of a pod serial, by Fran Wilde (Machina). The serial deals with our Earth, near future, and an effort at developing AI for colonizing / terraforming Mars due to Earth becoming uninhabitable. I did not listen / read the full serial, and Wells writes just Episode 7, which provides backstory.

Episode précis: origin of the serial's two rival corporations centers around the one splintering from the other, when 2 disgruntled employees from DevLok leave and form their own company Watchover. Episode 7 relays the incident which triggered the employee departures, though the seeds were sown well before. Evidently, the AI eventually goes rogue (Episode 10), and Episode 7 provides a "grey goo" incident precipitating that eventuality.

From reading various interviews with Wells and articles about her, I suspect she may have been asked to write this episode in particular because of her coding experience. She could get the details correct on how the mistake was made, have the consequences be realistic as was needed for the story. The description of the coding in the episode was specific and not hand-wavy, neither was it distracting since it was largely a MacGuffin.

Not Murderbot canon or even -adjacent the way "Obsolescence" was, but playing in the same sandbox. Familiar preoccupations with non-binary identities; corporate ethics affecting global climate / lives / livelihood; interpersonal respect across identities; hazards from and concomitant fear of AI. Despite that, a satisfying read insofar as I imagine it provides a window into Wells's authorial mind. ( )