I was suddenly reminded of this when reading Story where an AI becomes self-aware by playing games, but the beginning of the book has a company where they are trying to develop an AI through natural selection and the way they do it involves subjecting the computers to some sort of annoying signal, which is audible to the team. (I don't know if it's a matter of that the signal actually was normally audible to both, or if they just had it set up as a "if the broadcast is active, play this buzzer sound" thing for convenience.) The bit that sticks out to me is that while the team is discussing how the process isn't working, it suddenly ends, revealing that they've succeeded.
Unfortunately, that's about where my memory ends. I recall the AI being capable, but not superhuman, at least at first, although they start using it to make business decisions and I remember there being some sort of corporate espionage going on with other companies trying to acquire the AI. It was a full length hardback, written in English, probably between 200-300 pages.