Can Jack Outsmart Victor’s AI Assault on The Young and the Restless?
On The Young and the Restless, Genoa City is no stranger to corporate warfare, but the latest battle between Jack Abbott and Victor Newman has moved from the boardroom to the server room.
Can Jack Win on The Young and the Restless
On The Young and the Restless, Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and his family legacy company, Jabot, are under a new threat: a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence program, originally created by Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn) and stolen by Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford).
Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) is now weaponizing software to dismantle Jabot from the inside out. With the Abbott legacy hanging by a digital thread, Jack faces an impossible choice: destroy his company to save it, or find another way to neutralize Victor.
Jack’s current strategy is as bold as it is dangerous. To stop an enemy that lives in the code, Jack has proposed taking Jabot completely offline. This “digital blackout” would effectively sever Victor’s access, rendering the AI useless. However, the cost is astronomical. Halting online sales and communications could bleed millions, alienate vendors, and shatter consumer confidence.
As his wife Diane (Susan Walters) pointed out, it will only guarantee that their first quarter next year will be abysmal. But for Jack, the idea is a shield, not a sword, meant to buy them some more time — because they don’t have a better idea.
While Jack plays defense, his family is ready to attack. Diane and Kyle (Michael Mealor) are aggressively pursuing a legal route, gathering evidence to charge Victor with federal cybercrimes. If they can prove Victor knowingly deployed stolen tech for corporate espionage, he could face prison time. The key here lies with Phyllis. If the Abbotts can offer her immunity in exchange for a confession, she could be the smoking gun that puts Victor away. But would she?
Jack’s most potent weapon may not be technology or law, but relationships. Phyllis is a volatile variable; she handed Victor the AI to settle her own scores, but she only suffers more under his control. If Jack can appeal to her vanity — or her desire for respect — he might convince her to engage the program’s “backdoor” and turn the weapon back on Newman Enterprises.
Jack’s history, friendship, and loyalty to Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) probably won’t be much help in the long run, as Nikki almost always takes Victor’s side at some point. But Billy (Jason Thompson) might finally get his trump card against Victor if he can use Abbott Communications to help the cause.
To survive, Jack must blend these strategies: shield the company, prosecute the attacker, and turn the thief. The AI may be smart, but the Abbotts are desperate — and that makes them dangerous.
