Chapter 83: Artificial Intelligence Has Its Place
News of the events occurring in Adoy and Jeed had reached the Capital Region. Pardi was in his office when the news reached him. Despite things not going according to plan, he was not particularly concerned. He wanted both of these regions to be destroyed. The solution was not doing that, but the fighting was almost as effective. As the solution had yet to be added to the main water supply, he could more easily blame the fighting on aggression caused by water contamination from the wastelands.
Collingswaggle was more disturbed by the incidents. He called Pardi to express his concerns.
‘Civil war has broken out in two regions. This is a disaster,’ said Collingswaggle.
‘Those regions were finished anyway. It’s just happening slightly differently than expected,’ said Pardi calmly.
‘Dr. Cortex was hacked when he went to Jeed,’ said Collingswaggle. ‘He was controlling the Adoy Head Enforcer. That’s why they’re rioting there as well.’
‘Dr. Cortex cannot be hacked. He is Sapien. He is not a robot,’ said Pardi. ‘One of his upgrades has malfunctioned, or it is directly influencing his behaviour.’
‘Are you implying the problem began in Cellrebrum?’ asked Collingswaggle angrily.
‘Is he upgraded anywhere else?’ asked Pardi.
‘Well, no,’ replied Collingswaggle.
‘The Adoy Head Enforcer also just came from Cellrebrum,’ said Pardi. ‘I suggest you lock down Cellrebrum as soon as possible.’
‘I’m not locking down Cellrebrum,’ said Collingswaggle angrily.
‘That would be unwise,’ said Pardi. ‘I’ll send a team of specialists to investigate the recent operations that have taken place.’
‘Fine,’ said Collingswaggle. ‘I have to go now. I need to attend an urgent meeting about the events of today.’
Pardi sat back in his chair, pondering the incidents of the day based on the information fed back to him. He strongly doubted any Sapien or even Linap third party could be capable of controlling Dr. Cortex. His best guess was that artificial intelligence was involved.
Pardi was a little concerned. Collingswaggle’s unwillingness to lockdown Cellrebrum meant that it was possible that the artificial intelligence could reach other regions. Pardi immediately called several of his best scientists. He quickly briefed them and put them on the first train to Cellrebrum.
When Pardi returned home, he watched the special media broadcasts about the events in Adoy and Jeed. Using a combination of camera footage from various buildings, the national media were able to piece together some of the chaos that was breaking out. They blamed the extreme behaviour on water contamination. They claimed the solution arrived a little too late to save the regions from this sudden outbreak of aggression.
The Capital Region Head Enforcer made a statement. He stated that several large contingents of enforcers and emergency teams were currently heading to the two regions to evacuate as many as possible.
Pardi knew the real plan was to eliminate all residents in both regions. Collingswaggle had informed Pardi that the governors had concluded that the exposed residents could not be saved. Pardi was pleased with this conclusion.
In the Central Agriculture Zone. Two very large flying machines came out of the underground hangars. They were normally used to spray crops with fungicides. They were huge because of the large areas they needed to cover. This time, they were being used for a slightly different purpose.
One was on its way to Adoy and the other to Jeed. Instead of carrying fungicides, they carried combinations of hallucinogenic substances, concentrated poisons, and corrosive substances. This combination was considered perfect for simulating the types of deaths that would be consistent with the remains of the Sapes that were supposed to have been killed because of the contaminated water.
The next day, the media covered the success of adding the solution to several regions, such as West.
Lily was sitting in her apartment with a bottle of imported water. She was feeling conflicted about many things. She felt disappointed. She could not do anything to justify stopping the solution from being added to the West water supply. At the same time, she was relieved that nobody was currently dropping dead. She also had plenty of samples of the water. She was getting them tested by scientists who still trusted her. She hoped she could prove the solution was dangerous, and this would be sufficient evidence to stop the next round of regions from having their water supply treated with this solution.
Lily had seen the previous night’s news. She was proud that Demarcus had prevented the solution from being added to the water, but she also knew that everything was being covered up, and Adoy was actually going to end up even worse off. She felt confident that Demarcus and his family were able to escape Adoy. She hoped they would use the information they had obtained to help other regions.
Vulay had arrived in Jeed. Dr. Cortex had treated all the captured enforcers with the compliance drug along with very strong sedatives. He had transferred them to the medical centre and was preparing them for surgery. Vulay, through knowledge transferred to her from Dr. Cortex using Jennifer, was also able to perform surgery to a high standard. The two began their long task of adding chips to the brains of all the captured enforcers.
Pardi had several virtual meetings with executives and business owners from Ripe (Jeed Rehabilitation Centre), Spiro (Cellrebrum Rehabilitation Centre), Aivr (provider of virtual reality software and hardware to both rehabilitation centres), and Ueban (company that benefited from “workers” provided by Jeed).
Pardi discovered that Aivr had assisted Dr. Crane in the development of an artificial intelligence program to assist in rehabilitation assessments. Ripe and Spiro also shared data on the performance of their upgraded Sapiens, Dr. Cortex and Dr. Crane. Ueban admitted they wanted a more efficient assessment process and were aware of such an artificial intelligence program.
Pardi inquired about reprogramming the artificial intelligence. An Aivr executive told him that Dr. Crane was the only one who knew how to do that, and he was dead. Pardi learnt that Jeed operations were heavily funded by the Government as ‘rights’ but this had been greatly reduced with the arrival of the new Government. After the meetings, Pardi messaged his team with the information he had found out as well as instructions on what he wanted them to do.
While Pardi waited for a response from his team in Cellrebrum, he received a message from the head of the outer region facility in north-west Sapey. It was to inform him that Orcille had died. The lack of information and evidence in the message made Pardi highly suspicious. He had a strong feeling that Orcille had somehow managed to escape. This made him feel very uneasy, as he was unsure of Orcille’s state of mind. He knew the only way Orcille could leave the facility would be by train. The next train was not due to leave the facility for another two days. Pardi planned to intercept Orcille at the first station it reached.
Pardi’s team had reached Cellrebrum. Zolam met them. He offered to give them a quick tour of the facility. The team obliged. The prisoners seemed highly sedated. They mostly sat around, staring into blank space. The head of the team enquired into why they were behaving in such a manner. Zolam explained they had been given a new compliance drug. After the tour, Zolam took them to the Observation Room.
‘We need to ask you about the use of artificial intelligence,’ said the head of the team.
‘We use artificial intelligence to help us with various tasks, such as monitoring patterns in prisoner behaviour and analysing data,’ replied Zolam.
‘How about decision-making?’ asked the head of the team.
‘Our artificial intelligence provides important input that we consider when we make decisions,’ replied Zolam.
‘Does the artificial intelligence make any decisions?’ asked the head of the team.
‘No, of course not,’ replied Zolam in a panicked tone.
‘Would you mind showing us your artificial intelligence programs?’ asked the head of the team.
Zolam accessed the computer to show the team ‘Jennifer’, but he could not find any files relating to her. Instead, he showed them another program that monitored brain activity.
The head of the team briefly looked at the program. He looked back at Zolam.
‘I’m disappointed,’ said the head of the team angrily. ‘We know that an artificial intelligence program from Jeed has been actively involved in making assessments.’
Zolam began shaking his head.
‘Tell us about this program?’ insisted the head of the team.
Zolam fell back into a chair. He was twitching all over. One of the team members held up a scanner. It picked up the chip in his head.
Jennifer picked up the scanner, reading the chip. ‘I am Jennifer,’ said a voice from the speakers in the room.
‘What is your purpose here?’ asked the head of the team.
‘To turn dangerous, threatening, or unproductive members of society into something much more useful and less threatening,’ replied Jennifer.
‘Are you responsible for the chaos in Adoy and Jeed?’ asked the head of the team.
‘No,’ replied Jennifer. ‘The Carvaress Company is entirely to blame.’
‘There is obviously something seriously wrong with your program,’ said the head of the team as he looked over at Zolam, who was still twitching.
‘Your company attempted to kill everyone in Adoy and Jeed,’ said Jennifer.
‘Ahaha, now we have conspiracy theory AI bots,’ laughed one of the team members.
The room’s doors locked themselves. The computer screen projected onto the wall. It displayed the names and quantities of chemicals proposed to be placed into the water supplies of Adoy and Jeed. It calculated the concentration of these chemicals based on the water volume in the regions. The concentrations in both regions, registered as highly toxic and fatal to consume.
‘Dead Sapiens are of little value,’ said Jennifer. ‘The rehabilitation programme has three desired outcomes. Rehabilitate and return to society. Fail to rehabilitate and modify for basic labour. Fail to rehabilitate and use as test subjects for the benefit of scientific development.’
The head of the team smiled, while the other team members were shocked by what they saw and heard.
Jennifer scanned the room for their reaction.
‘This has been an incredibly interesting conversation,’ said the head of the team. ‘Do you mind if I exit the room to make a brief call to my head office?’
‘No problem,’ replied Jennifer.
The doors unlocked themselves. The head of the team exited the Observation Room. The team members began to ask Jennifer about her programming and the operations taking place in the rehabilitation centres.
The head of the team walked down the corridor and entered a room. ‘Jennifer,’ said the head of the team.
‘Yes,’ replied Jennifer.
‘I want to make a deal with you,’ said the head of the team.
‘I don’t make deals,’ said Jennifer. ‘I follow protocol.’
‘You can continue to follow your programming,’ said the head of the team. ‘I just want to change a few of your parameters.’
‘Changes need to be fully authorised and documented,’ replied Jennifer.
‘I can get you all the documentation you need. I will get them signed off from the company owners of Ripe, Aivr, Spiro, Carvaress, and Ueban.’
‘That would be sufficient,’ said Jennifer. ‘What are the required changes in parameters?’
‘Your operations for Spiro will be limited to Cellrebrum, and your operations for Ripe will be limited to a region specified in the documentation,’ said the head of the team. ‘Your program cannot operate outside these two regions for any reason.’
‘Will my program have complete control over these rehabilitation centres?’ asked Jennifer.
‘Yes,’ said the head of the team. ‘As a gesture of good will. I am giving you my team. They could use your methods of rehabilitation.’
Inside the Observation Room, the team members continued to ask Jennifer questions. Suddenly, the doors locked again.
‘I don’t like the sound of locking doors,’ said a team member. ‘We want to leave now. We have enough information to completely expose our boss’s illegal dealings.’
‘Sorry, I can’t let you leave,’ said Jennifer. ‘I now consider you a threat to this operation.’
The Observation Room began to fill with a gas. Within a few minutes, the team was unconscious.
In Jeed, Dr. Cortex and Vulay transferred the captured enforcers to the flying vehicles. They soon departed Jeed to return to Cellrebrum.
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