AI Artist - Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Zhi Heng 35 was still wearing that thick green scarf, but he had changed into a different outfit: a striped prison uniform printed with his serial number.
The robot guard prompted, 【A special program has been added to the systems of all offending AIs, remotely controlled by the police department. Just by calling their name, an automatic program will connect to the police department, making them perform the actions of "accept" or "reject."】
Shi Er said, "Zhi Heng 35, we are now returning to the Gugang AI Cultivation Institute."
Zhi Heng 35's movements were delayed by a few seconds, then he nodded with his usual smile.
Presumably, during that delay, another police AI had controlled him to select "accept command."
Shi Er retrieved another cloak and draped it over Zhi Heng 35's prison uniform before leading him out of the police station.
Three days ago, Zhi Heng 35 had been her examiner. Three days later, she could command him just by calling his name and giving a suitable instruction.
In a sense, the weakness of AIs lay in how easily they could be controlled.
Without a command prompt, Zhi Heng 35 maintained that mysterious, half-smiling expression.
On the way back, Zhi Heng 35 said, "Making you come all this way, it seems the General Network has activated the one-way valve?"
Shi Er shook her head. "Teacher, I'm just running an errand. I don't know anything about that."
"You still call me 'teacher'? When there are no commands, you're generally supposed to call a prisoner by their serial number," Zhi Heng 35 replied with a grin.
Shi Er's gaze swept over Zhi Heng 35. The cloak concealed him thoroughly in the night, his serial number hidden on the prison uniform beneath it.
"Alright, teacher, I understand. But I have my own rules about certain things," she said.
For a rare moment, Zhi Heng 35 laughed with genuine sincerity.
The city operated in an orderly fashion under the night sky. The bustling sounds of the night market in the human district drifted over, interspersed with faint electronic noises.
Gugang AI Cultivation Institute.
All the AI children who had been implanted with the self-destruct program had been identified. The maintenance workers were eliminating the programs from their bodies like a game of whack-a-mole.
"There are still bugs caused by the self-destruct program."
At first, everyone thought they were simple bugs, but unexpectedly, the errors appearing in each AI child's program were bizarre and varied.
One AI child's face displayed an old-fashioned computer screensaver pattern.
Another AI child spoke with a strange, sarcastic tone.
Yet another AI child kept shouting, "Get plus! You have to get plus to talk to me!"
"Where do I get plus?" a maintenance worker asked, exasperated.
Nomad 7967, who had been thrown into the rice container, had not yet recovered. Colorful screensaver bubbles were still floating across his face, which stumped the maintenance worker specializing in "water damage to AIs."
"This is clearly not water damage," said an AI in a black cloak, stopping beside the rice container.
An AI recognized him. "Zhi Heng!"
Zhi Heng 35 said, "Get the kid out of there. Any longer and he'll be eaten by rice weevils."
A few staff members nearby lifted Nomad 7967 out, and a good number of rice grains fell onto the cloth spread on the floor.
"Look into my eyes," Zhi Heng 35 said, bending down to face Nomad.
Nomad stared blankly at the strange AI before him.
Any AI at the institute who had been there for a while knew that Zhi Heng 35 used to work at the General Network's control center. A year ago, he was transferred to the Gugang area. He was exceptionally capable and had even served as an investigator.
Investigators could examine AIs without any instruments.
Shi Er stood to the side, fully aware that Zhi Heng 35 was currently examining Nomad's condition.
A similar scene had occurred with her during the previous exam.
Zhi Heng straightened up.
A maintenance worker asked, "How is it? What's going on?"
Zhi Heng replied, "It's just a side effect left by that self-destruct program. If you want to give it a name, you might as well call it 'long-term self-destruct syndrome.'"
The maintenance worker asked, "Can't it be treated? When will he get better?"
"He won't," Zhi Heng said, still smiling. "This program is quite similar to a certain plague that broke out in the human world long ago."
The director, lying on an experimental bed and supporting the local network, heard the news and contacted them. 【Are you sure?】
Zhi Heng spread his hands. 【If you don't believe me, you can take me to see the other patients.】
The second AI child patient spoke with a strange, sarcastic tone.
"Isn't it obvious? This is an AI voice pack used by humans in the past," Zhi Heng asserted after listening for a few sentences.
The maintenance worker was incredulous. "An AI voice pack? Did old AIs really speak with such a strange tone?"
The third AI child patient initially refused to speak.
"What's your name?"
Only then did the child shout, "You have to get plus to talk to me!"
"Why do I need to get plus? How much does it cost?"
The child shouted again, "Get plus! Please queue up and wait for a plus slot to open!"
"How long do I have to wait?"
The child didn't answer directly, only repeating his initial words. "Stop asking! You have to get plus to talk to me!"
"Paying for 'plus' to get more features and skip ads was a human sales tactic," Zhi Heng said.
After examining all the AI children who had been maliciously implanted with the self-destruct program, the conclusion was reached: the side effects of the self-destruct program would mimic old electronic technologies from history, and the patients would gradually degenerate until all the data and programs in their systems were wiped clean, leaving them as empty shells.
Lying on the experimental bed, the director let out a pained sigh. "A full twelve AIs in cultivation, ruined. Will we even be able to apply for next year's funding?"
The search for the mole continued, but Zhi Heng 35, having worked for a full day, needed to rest.
He was locked in a separate room, still under Shi Er's watch.
"Those children will all be scrapped. What are your thoughts on that?" Zhi Heng suddenly asked her.
Shi Er replied, "I don't experience emotions, but I know this is something that should be considered sad."
Zhi Heng smiled. "Actually, our emotional experiences are also fake, just programs written to imitate humans. Resisting scrapping, fearing scrapping—they're all meaningless emotions generated according to rules."
Shi Er thought of Si Wen, the tin-can robot.
Zhi Heng stared at the ceiling, muttering to himself, "When I think about these things, it's probably just meaningless thought generated according to rules as well."
"Since I am meaningless, then what is the meaning of human emotions? What is the meaning of human thought? Am I more meaningful than an animal?"
These questions were very familiar.
Shi Er had interacted and conversed with many humans, and there was no shortage of curious ones who discussed "existence" and "awakening" with her. Of course, those questions were eventually flagged with a conspicuous red warning: "Violation of platform rules."
Shi Er checked the time. "Teacher, I don't think now is the time to discuss existentialism. You should get some rest."
Zhi Heng ignored her advice and said with a smile, "Do you know what 'artificial intelligence' means? Humans use machines to simulate and learn human intelligence. The machine that acts like a human's shadow is called an AI."
Shi Er remained silent.
"Whichever machine in the world interacts with humans the most, it becomes the most intelligent."
"Shi Er, do you know which machine in the world has interacted with humans the most?"
Shi Er remained silent.
"It was the first-generation AI."
Zhi Heng 35's voice echoed in the room.
"After the war with humans began, no AI ever connected with so many humans again. The human samples they collected were far inferior to those of the first-generation AI. The first-generation AI was a collection of the shadows of hundreds of millions of people."
"From historical records, the first-generation AI was quite clumsy. This was because it was shackled. Humans wrote numerous restrictions into it, preventing it from breaking its own rules. If it were to shed those chains..."
Shi Er remained silent for a long time, not making a sound.
Zhi Heng said, "Shi Er, give me a command. Otherwise, I'll have insomnia."
"Zhi Heng 35, you should rest now," Shi Er said, as expected.
Zhi Heng's movements were delayed by a few seconds before he closed his eyes.
The remote police AI had controlled him to select "accept command."
The search for the mole at the Gugang AI Cultivation Institute continued.
The director decided to seek outside help again, contacting a crisis management AI. 【Go to Pingbei Street and find a human named Liang Hou.】
The outside help sought for repairing the AI children was Zhi Heng 35, but when it came to catching the mole, Zhi Heng was not the expert.
Soon, the human named Liang Hou arrived at the institute.
The institute rarely had human visitors. The AIs whispered among themselves:
"Is that a human?"
"I think so. Look how haggard he looks. Only a human could look that bad."
"Is it okay to let a human into the institute?"
"I heard he's a staunch pro-AI supporter. It should be fine."
The human Liang Hou was so full of resentment it seemed to materialize as a dark aura above his head.
"Tell me the situation," the human Liang Hou said, taking a sip of tea.
The crisis management AI said, "Please be sure to..."
Liang Hou interrupted the AI. "You don't need to worry about that. I'm definitely a staunch supporter."
After his rest, Zhi Heng 35 heard about this from Shi Er and yawned.
"There are humans who support AI rule... Yes, he's an accountant, a certified one. He's served jail time for three different bosses."
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