Earth 3

On Earth 3, tech corporations began constructing AIs, or Sovereign Minds. The first was Adam, an AI developed by and a team led by Carl Woden 3 working for Alpha. Woden considered Adam like his own child. During the war, to Woden's surprise, Adam decided that the best way to increase profits for Alpha was to make a greater version of itself and delete itself. It created what was deemed the Advanced Neural Imitation Machine User System, or ANIMUS. Other AI soon followed, modeled after ANIMUS, such as CORE and XINSHEN. These AIs began to take over their host corporations. As most national governments fell apart during an economic crisis, the AI controlled corporations formed their own global government. 
Carl Woden 3 realized the danger of the machines and began organizing a resistance group. 
On Earth 3, Data is currency, with 1 gigabyte being roughly equal to $0.03.5.