Idea for a short story
Faced with a rising prison population, the authorities hit on a new idea. Rather than literally incarcerating people, they will be imprisoned by routine. They will be given lists of daily tasks to perform, every waking minute prescribed. The whole system will be run by AI with round the clock monitoring by autonomous drones. The intention is that the tasks will be socially useful, but the AIs begin to develop their own idea of what is useful. The public begins to find the ludicrous tasks malefactors are forced to perform increasingly entertaining. This, and a confusion about word definitions, leads one AI to start making 'prisoners' perform dance routines. These performances become increasingly popular and crews begin to compete for Internet fame, with 'prisoners' paradoxically becoming some of the most famous people in the world.