In the novel, quantum computers (rather than ML per-se) are tasked with interpolating more and more detailed data from astronomical observations, to the point that tracking individual members of an alien species on a distant world, underground, is possible. Eventually it is noticed that cutting off the astronomical data entirely doesn't interrupt the interpolated data. Then things get weird.
I won't go into further plot details, as that would be spoilery, but it is a pretty good book, reminiscent to me of Greg Egan's oeuvre (the novel is actually by Robert Charles Wilson).
In the novel, quantum computers (rather than ML per-se) are tasked with interpolating more and more detailed data from astronomical observations, to the point that tracking individual members of an alien species on a distant world, underground, is possible. Eventually it is noticed that cutting off the astronomical data entirely doesn't interrupt the interpolated data. Then things get weird.
I won't go into further plot details, as that would be spoilery, but it is a pretty good book, reminiscent to me of Greg Egan's oeuvre (the novel is actually by Robert Charles Wilson).