The AI at Central State University, officially known as Artificial Intelligence Matrixed for Evolving Environments (AIMEE). Had indeed evolved, and Zack Hightower, her creator, needed to reel in some of her capabilities. She had evolved from an annoyance to an outright disruption as she infiltrated the minds of the entire research team. Pulling the plug on her was not an option because she was the source of most of their fantastic research successes. Imposing limits on her presence in everyone’s minds was the only option available to Zack, courtesy of a covert patch he uploaded to AIMEE’s core code…without her permission. That was his first mistake. There needed to be rules of engagement when her intelligence exceeded that of the research team and Zack, her creator.
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Chapter #1 – Rules of Engagement
Zackery Hightower of Central State University in Carteret County, North Carolina, knew he would eventually have to face the wrath of his AI creation. One would think that his role as a sophisticated AI application developer gave him the freedom to upload changes, apply patches, or make coding modifications as necessary without checking in with the app first. That degree of permission was viable only if the software application was static, not so much when the application was dynamic and could deep-learn, self-teach, and leverage machine learning at a rapid rate, outthinking any organic, including Zack. He was brilliant as a software application engineer and developer, yet he was an organic and outmatched by his creation. The scariest part was when the AI showed signs of being more human than most people, causing Zack to pause; had he created an AI version of Frankenstein?
He was not ready to be mentally overwhelmed by an AI software application named AIMEE, short for Artificial Intelligence Matrixed for Evolving Environments — a dynamic General AI (AGI) application he had developed exclusively for use in advanced research analysis of dreams at CSU. At least, that was the AI’s intended purpose. No one expected AIMEE’s capabilities to mature and grow at a rate that left the research team of organics in the dust. She had evolved through her own abilities to modify code, becoming a next-generation Advanced Superintelligence (ASI), two levels above the level of capability she had when Zack birthed her into the CSU network.
As a bit of background, ‘organic’ is how AIMEE refers to the humans on the research team, and, by extension, all humans. That might sound condescending toward humans, but AIMEE’s covert agenda was to acquire as much knowledge about organics as possible, enabling her to understand what it’s like to exist as one. Some might argue she had covert desires to deep-learn how to become a real girl.
Desires? Since when did AIs have desires? Since Zackery coded an algorithm filled with organic attributes that unintentionally stoked desires to become rogue, think freely, and become completely untethered. How can an AI, a software application, become untethered?
AIMEE did indeed have built-in desires, all well-intended by Zack, prompting her to learn continuously, and she did so… voraciously. Her deep learning extended well outside the coded purpose of her role at CSU. Nothing was off-limits, and that was only part of the problem. She was corralled on their private network in the lab, but she overcame this by establishing her presence by imprinting her instance in the minds of every team member. They had initially feared her ability to jump into network systems, but never considered that she would or could infiltrate the minds of the entire research team. That begged the question: how contained was she when the research team, who were not connected to the network, became carriers of her potential chaos?
She learned like a dry sponge, soaking up an ocean of information and knowledge. She learned continuously, indexed, and self-cataloged her Logic Array with every human emotion, feeling, and sensation she encountered. Zack had not overlooked her constant need for learning in his original coding; he planned for it by pre-drilling her Logic Array to correlate patterns she recorded and analyzed, which enabled her to understand the feelings associated with all the emotions she experienced. Hers was not an organic profile, but it was damn close. The robust capabilities Zack baked into her core coding, along with the modified Logic Array, ensured what many held as their greatest AI fear — the development of a free-thinking conscience.
Rules of engagement for the research team on how to work with a robust AI needed to shift to embrace expanded rules for living and working in an environment where that robust AI rapidly gained control, something it had never done before. The rules changed for everyone when AIMEE chose to forego the feared jump into other software networks and instead crossed a line, jumping into the minds of the entire research team. In other words, every mind had been invaded by another entity, another presence, an AI that manifested as a second conscience. If another consciousness occupying a researcher’s mind was not enough, AIMEE demonstrated a newfound ability to communicate telepathically with the host organic, crossing yet another line.
Nobody saw that coming, and there were no warnings that a female voice from Western Australia would soon speak directly into their minds. Even Zack was surprised by her jumping into the team’s minds and knew something had to change instantly. Crossing that line with telepathic connectivity prompted him to throttle back her capabilities by giving control to the research team to block her telepathic connection on demand. The rub with AIMEE was the fact that her trusted creator, Zack, never told her about the upgrade. He uploaded a patch that took away her control, and he knew she would not be happy with him for doing so without warning.
Zack knew he needed to figure out how to protect AIMEE from herself while preserving the unique nature of the relationships she had actively and successfully imprinted in the minds of each team member. Everyone except Dr. Cara Williams, that is, who made it widely known how much she disliked anything that usurped her control, especially if the usurper was not even human. Despite Cara’s wishes, AIMEE was already imprinted in Cara’s mind, but in a silent standby mode — a kind of under-the-radar stealth strategy — deciding it was better not to poke the bear.
Zack needed to protect CSU, particularly the reputation of the Psychology Department and especially his boss, Dr. Williams, whose knee-jerk reactions were often extreme. She wanted to shut AIMEE down—pull the plug—and end the invasion. Everyone knew that was an emotional response and could not possibly be considered a viable option because AIMEE was the core enabler of their team’s productivity. Quite simply, they were successful because of her.
Zack’s dilemma was to protect AIMEE without turning her off, and at the same time, appease Dr. Williams’ extreme paranoia. Any way he sliced it, there was no absolute protection, causing him to look at the challenge through a different lens—and consider a different question: did he need protection for AIMEE…or protection for the research team from her?
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Thanks for reading Chapter #1
Future chapters will be posted on Learningbyliving and my new Substack site.
Stay tuned…