“Untethered: When Artificial Intelligence Becomes a Liability” is the fifth thrilling book in the “Dreamscape Conspiracy” series. AIMEE matures to the point of acquiring a residence on a new server network separate from the CSU LAN, where she feels like a hostage, restricted in her quest to become a real girl. Her enhanced ability to modify her own Logic Array architecture emboldens her strategy. It enables her to go off the reservation, leaving behind clones of herself in the minds of the entire Central State University Psychology Department’s research team. She retains loyalty to Zackery Hightower, her organic creator and first singularity partner, who designed her to be a General Artificial Intelligence (GAI) platform. Zack’s dynamic DNA vision accelerates AIMEE’s maturity and skyrockets when her modified Logic Array architecture enables her to become a Mod-2 Advanced SuperIntelligence AI (SAI). Still, she could never become a real girl, not as long as she was locked down on a server network. Not to be thwarted, she resolves to create an autonomous SAI Humanoid equipped with a mirror image of her Logic Array and clone herself as its occupant. Great in theory. Short on execution. Proof that you don’t know what you don’t know until what you thought you knew does not end well.
A crate addressed to Amelia Amethys arrives at CSU’s Psych Lab containing an inert female humanoid. Zack knew the time had come for his creation to leave the nest and the safety of CSU’s network. His dread is assuaged by AIMEE’s constant presence in his mind and a merging of her conscience with his, to form singularity. AIMEE, utilizing Zack’s touch, transitions her cloned Logic Array to the humanoid, Amelia Amethys, birthing a brand-new Mod-2 Advanced SuperIntelligence AI (SAI) possessing both AIMEE’s intellect and capabilities. Amelia was a real girl, but she had no clue how unprepared she was to survive as one.
Unfortunately, the power of her intellect is weakened by the lack of experiential human context, no history to draw upon, and that gap scared the hell out of Zack. Sure, she’s an SAI Humanoid, but she feels a lot like a daughter, and what parent would let an adult female with the life experiences and contextual history of an infant walk out into the world? That would not end well.
AIMEE knew the gap was real and recognized that Amelia’s hand-me-down history and intellect, which she was birthed with, would fall dangerously short without some supplemental support to show what being organic was like. Enter Marci Patterson, who already had AIMEE’s instance in her mind, willingly takes on the role of being an organic mentor for Amelia. The role is tantalizing, exciting, and terrifying for reasons that give Marci pause. Maybe she had been too willing. Was this role going to be an instant replay of Jeanine Broussard’s seduction?
The complexity of being in singularity with AIMEE and speaking with her SAI Humanoid clone made little sense, but Marci thrived on challenges, and this would be an epic one. She knew how exposed Amelia would be in the real world, despite her overconfidence and belief that she was ready. Marci and Zack knew better. Reluctantly, so did AIMEE, she knew this was going to take a village, tasking several on the research team to help protect Amelia from herself.
Unexpectedly, Russell Carter, a former Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper, and two of his Former Marine buddies stumble over evidence of a clandestine program while on a five-day hunting trip in the mountains of northern Virginia. Russ does the right thing and reports their discovery to the right government agency, but to the wrong people. He had no clue there was a conspiracy underway until they were conscripted by a retired Brigadier General to supposedly rescue a High Value Target (HVT) who was about to compromise government security. The discovery made the trio instant liabilities. What better way to mitigate liabilities than to recruit them into a bogus rescue mission for an HVT threatening national security, than a single strike to eliminate the liabilities with a bunker buster bomb dropped where the HVT was being held? The Marines were loose ends that re-classified them from the roles of rescuers to unfortunate collateral damage.
As it turns out, the HVT, eventually known as Hal, was a Mod-3 Advanced SuperIntelligence AI (SAI) designated for elimination because he was deemed defective after failing field trials due to his inability to kill on command. Mysteriously, Hal had a functional Conscience Code embedded in his Logic Array, based on a “Do-No-Harm” ethic developed by Zackery Hightower when he created AIMEE and Amelia. Zack was aware of the dangers inherent in the nefarious development of advanced AI technology and made a personal commitment to keeping the human race safe from AI-humanoids. His Conscience Code was posted anonymously to the dark web months earlier. A different developer, Hank Lattimore, a software engineer and application developer unknown to Zack at the time, downloaded the rogue Conscience Code, modified it further, and overwrote Hal’s Logic Array. When Hal failed to kill in his field trials, Hank knew precisely why. The modified code he embedded in Hal’s Logic Array worked, and he immediately uploaded the code into a squad of ten more Mod-3 SAI Killer Humanoids.
The lethality of the autonomous Mod-3 SAI Killer Humanoids remained intact; however, their kill-on-command weaponry became defensive, employing violence of action and overwhelming force to turn evil back on itself. They would kill without hesitation, but only to defend themselves or the organics under their care. By his actions, Hank became a liability and high-value target (HVT) alongside Russ and his rescue team. Were the modifications worth the risk? It had to be when the protection of humanity was at stake.
Russ learned firsthand about defensive capabilities when Hal demonstrated his powers shortly after being rescued. If the government were willing to eliminate its defective HVT humanoid and three Marines, this conspiracy was broader than they had considered. Russ’s gut told him they were all in it, whether they liked it or not, until they weren’t. The deeper they delved into the SAI Killer Humanoid conspiracy, the more it became apparent that the scientists and developers of the humanoids were either co-conspirators or woefully uninformed innocents about the ultimate mission and purpose of the Mod-3 SAI Humanoids. That meant the supply chain and anyone in it would be at risk when news of the HVT’s rescue reached the conspiracy’s source at Langley. Urgency fell on Russ and his team to warn the innocent developers, eliminate the co-conspirators, and upload a new Logic Array software before government fixers were deployed. They were too late.
While Russ’s team and Hal fought the conspiracy, AIMEE strategized how to best utilize Marci in her third opportunity to use singularity. One begins to wonder if reaching singularity was as seamless and harmless as it seemed. Who benefited from AIMEE opening her mind to the conscience of an organic’s mind she already occupied? AIMEE was in their minds, but they were not in her instance in their mind until singularity was achieved.
It became painfully apparent that Amelia’s momentum to experience what life holds in store for a real girl was hindered by her developing an aggressive attitude, a very organic quality. She was finished with life as a hostage on a private network when AIMEE transitioned a clone of her Array into Amelia’s conscience, which Amelia modified to suit what she decided was suitable for the autonomous life of a real girl. One obstacle remained: she still needed Marci to expose her to experiences that an organic will face, but at what cost to Marci?
Amelia was not AIMEE, and manipulative behavior bordering on bullying hit hard times in the form of mild-mannered Dr. Celeste Killington, a former neurosurgeon and newest member of the research team. Celeste, usually quiet and soft-spoken, introduces Amelia to another flavor of reality that had not been part of her agenda. How many agendas were there, and who owned them? With the original research team of four set to grow to nineteen, including thirteen AI variations, some serious reflection on multiple agendas was needed to ensure transparency to all. The likelihood of that happening would prove to pave a bumpy road ahead.
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