As I watched the news this morning and the disruption caused by AI fear in panicked congresspersons who barely know how to spell AI correctly, spewing solutions from guardrails to policy and regulation, I felt compelled to write this piece. Chicken Little is spinning plates of hysteria while gullible media throws accelerant on the fires of fear.
My 5-book Dreamscape Conspiracy Series has evolved from the peaceful integration of AI to less peaceful intentions in the fifth book, “Untethered.” In book six (WIP), “Undaunted,” I use a broader brush, and what I’m seeing and hearingin RT makes me laugh when terminology I’ve been writing about (fictionally) for the last two years surfaces. As it turns out, I’ve been writing non-fiction wrapped in fiction, but I must ask:
How fictional is it really?
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The Fictional Non-Fiction of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
There is no question that AI is dominating headlines, and Chicken Little is spinning plates of hysteria while gullible media throws accelerant on the fires of fear. I’m reminded of the hoopla over gun control when negative outcomes involving guns neglected to consider the requirement of a human finger to pull the trigger. Guns are effective weapons of war, and for those who hunt to feed their families. Guns are dangerous when they are in the hands of humans with evil intentions. That single fact gives credence to the idea that controlling guns is not as effective as controlling evil intentions, and, knowing humankind, no legislation or policies have ever been effective in that regard. Is AI any different? I believe AI is not an evil software application until it falls into the wrong hands.
AI has the potential to destroy peace and/or kill if it falls into the hands of organics (humans) who have evil intentions. Creating guardrails and layering restrictive policy legislation on AI as a technology are more or less a “rinse and repeat” of gun control laws. This premise has been on my mind since the Dreamscape Conspiracy storyline evolved into the fifth book, “Untethered.” My current WIP, book #6, “Undaunted,” takes a closer look at the good, bad, and ugly of AI as it escapes the environment defined by closed networks and into untethered Humanoids.
Book #5, “Untethered,” tells of the discovery of a defective MOD-3 Generative SuperIntelligence AI Humanoid scheduled for elimination to cover up the “defect” of failing to kill on command. Killing other Humanoids and humans on command was a core capability designed into the Logic Arrays of the MOD-3 AI-driven Humanoids.
The Humanoid that Russell Carter and his former Marine buddies discovered was proof positive that AI-driven Humanoids existed, but they had no clue it was defective. The government’s black operations plan to build these MOD-3 killer Humanoids was a deep and dark secret, and the fact that the former Marines called in the discovery showed just how dark the conspiracy went when the government’s reaction was revealed. Though Russ and team were on a civilian hunting trip, a rogue retired Brigadier General running the black ops program enlisted (volun-told) them to rescue the AI High Value Target (HVT), under the pretense that it posed a critical national security threat. The former Marines did not realize that they had become HVTs the government planned to erase along with the “defective” AI Humanoid.
The “defect” that plagued this particular MOD-3 Humanoid turns the entire story on its head when the AI’s developers tried to sabotage field trials by corrupting the Kill-Code in the Logic Array, overwriting it with a Conscious Code they discovered after they realized what the beta version MOD-3 was designed to do. The Conscious Code was found on an anonymous dark web AI Developer site, written by Zackery Hightower for use in his AI creation developed for pattern analysis at Central State University in North Carolina. Zackery feared what AI technology could do if used for evil rather than good. He chose a key tenet of the Hippocratic Oath to protect against what could happen as AI evolved, embedding a foundational conscience ethic built around “First, Do No Harm.”
Zackery’s AI creation at CSU became AIMEE (Artificial Intelligence Matrixed for Evolving Environments), built for peaceful purposes of pattern recognition and analysis in dream research. AIMEE was not a weapon and was never intended to be. Still, she was matrixed to evolve in her environment, and Zack’s Logic Array architecture let her write code and, to his surprise, self-learn to rewrite the original code in her Array. He intentionally enabled her to exceed him and his intellect because she had the chops to do so. AIMEE exceeded his expectations spectacularly, and today we hear that fear manifesting as Recursive Self-Improvement, the same advanced capability that enabled AIMEE’s intellect and capabilities to exceed her original design and that of her creator. She was defined by, and lived up to, her namesake… AI matrixed to evolve in her environment. Zackery’s foresight prompted the insertion of code that laid a ubiquitous foundation for consciousness to safeguard future AI deployments, which he posted on the dark web for other AI developers to consider.
The “defective” MOD-3 Humanoid in Untethered was by no means defective. He did not fail field trials; he proved that the rogue Conscious Code covertly overwritten into his Logic Array worked perfectly. His perceived defect rested solely on his failure to kill on command, and that could not be allowed to stand. The defective Humanoid and the Marines who discovered him were all liabilities and were scheduled for destruction.
Sorry, no spoilers today…
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Amazon Buy Link for “Untethered” – https://amzn.to/4jIlTj9
Video Trailer for Book #5 – https://bit.ly/4ngcMbV
Cinematic Teaser – https://bit.ly/4mX0fLv
Review by Jill Rey – https://bit.ly/4ist93X
Goodreads Review Page – https://bit.ly/3M52AWh
Listopia Techno-Thriller Ranking – 2013 Techno-Thrillers (37 books)
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This story was released in my Amazon Portfolio, along with the rest of the thrilling tales that have been published so far: https://amzn.to/3uuONzj
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