AI Artist - Chapter 22
Chapter 22
The Gugang AI Cultivation Institute’s AI Sports Meet.
Director Jing Sheng, who had been perennially “paralyzed” in bed, demonstrated a vivid medical miracle. He unplugged the network cable from his brain and temporarily transferred control of the local network to his assistant.
“Where is Shi Er, my one and only Humanology student?” The moment the director stepped outside, he started looking everywhere for his missing student.
An employee replied, “Shi Er went to the electronics museum to see the electronic sheep.”
It must have been because she’d thought of something as absurd as “Do Bionic Shi Ers Dream of Electronic Sheep?”
The director pinched the bridge of his nose. “...I knew I shouldn’t have told her about dreaming.”
To think she’d skip the sports meet! Skipping such a noble and grand event as the sports meet!
While observing the electronic sheep at the electronics museum, Shi Er was surprised to see it sneeze.
“It can sneeze!” a human child next to her shouted.
The robot guide explained, “Yes, not only can it sneeze, but it can also hiccup from accidentally swallowing air.”
It’s even more advanced than I am, Shi Er thought.
Shi Er asked, “Why is its price so high?”
The robot answered patiently, “The electronic sheep incorporates intelligent digestion technology and a simulated respiratory system on top of standard bionic technology. Of course, it’s also because it’s an official piece of merchandise, so as rumored ‘official merch,’ its price is severely inflated.”
The child asked, “What’s ‘official merch’?”
The robot replied, “It refers to officially branded small-ticket merchandise that is generally ugly and expensive.”
The robot employee had accidentally revealed its personal opinion. After speaking, it coughed awkwardly, trying to cover up what it had just said.
This time, it was Shi Er’s turn to ask. “Does this mean that some AIs in this world can eat?”
The robot replied, “Yes, this technology has already been applied to some AIs. Of course, only the advanced AI cultivation institutes can afford them.”
The child asked again, “The electronic sheep eats. Does it poop?”
The robot’s tone was a little embarrassed. “No, otherwise our museum would get very dirty.”
It was Shi Er’s turn once more. “Then in what form is the food it consumes stored in its body? Does it need to be cleared out periodically?”
The human and the AI were quite polite, taking turns asking questions.
The robot was truly being driven mad by these two inquisitive creatures questioning it in rotation.
However, it maintained its excellent professional ethics and said with a smile, “The mechanical teeth chew the food, grinding it into small particles. These particles then enter a combustion chamber where the food is incinerated. The thermal energy generated in the process is used to activate a power generation system, which means the food is converted into electrical energy and stored in the electronic sheep’s body.”
Shi Er understood. “Thank you for the explanation.”
The human child did not understand and was about to throw a tantrum. “I don’t get it!”
The robot looked troubled, scratched its head, and quickly consulted its colleagues over the local network on how to explain it to a child.
A colleague taught it to reply this way: “The food the little sheep eats doesn’t turn into poop. It turns into a crackling electric current inside the little sheep’s body.”
The human child’s eyes widened. “I wish the food I ate would turn into a crackling electric current, too.”
The robot: “…”
Enough. It had had enough of this job.
The robot advised wearily, “Little friend, we need to ensure you stay alive and safe. Please, do not touch the electrical switches and outlets at home.”
When Shi Er returned from the electronics museum, she found that the institute’s AI Sports Meet was still going on.
The three divisions—staff, students, and juveniles—were competing in a relay race. It seemed the AI juvenile division was the fastest; you could barely see the contestants’ shadows.
Shi Er wanted to slip away, attempting to quietly sidestep back to her dorm right under the director’s nose—
“Student Shi Er, the pillar of our Humanology department!”
The director AI, who spent his years on an experimental bed, was waving and shouting for her.
Shi Er had no choice but to be dragged over to watch the sports meet.
The director asked, “Do you know why the institute holds a sports meet?”
Shi Er replied, “I’m sorry, I don’t.”
The director pointed to the AIs dashing across the field. “It’s to see how the basic physical fitness of the newly purchased AI juveniles is. That’s a new batch of AI children our institute bought. Their fitness looks pretty good.”
Shi Er asked, “What does basic physical fitness represent?”
The director laughed heartily, starting to set up another punchline. “Shi Er, you’re a problem AI.”
“Theoretically, before any base system is installed, the physical fitness of all AIs’ bionic bodies is the same. Differences emerge after the base AI architecture is installed. Some adapt to their bodies well and have strong physical fitness, while others are less perfect and have weaker fitness. It’s like beauty and ugliness in humans—even if both parents are good-looking, the child isn’t necessarily so.”
“We use the AI Sports Meet to test these children’s talents. Only after the tests are complete will we separate them and teach them according to their individual aptitudes.”
On the field, the winning AI juvenile team was shouting, “We won!”
The director stood up and walked over to the group of AI juveniles who had just had their base architecture implanted. The children all fell silent, acting like timid quails.
“Who is that?” one uninformed AI child whispered to a classmate.
“That’s the director. Can’t you feel his signal? Our base architectures all came from the director.”
The director said to the AI juveniles, “You did very well. However, starting today, you will be separated for your classes.”
The AI child athletes didn’t dare utter a single word of nonsense, each standing straighter than the last.
【Separated for classes.】
【How scary.】
【What kind of AI will I become?】
【Will I get hit?】
“...AIs who have only received basic education do not contaminate one another. Once segregated education begins, since each AI’s learning content and progress will differ, you cannot have contact with each other until you are mentally and physically sound, to avoid mutual contamination.”
After reciting the long list of school rules for segregated education, the director dismissed the children.
Dusk fell, and the sun was already slanting west.
On the field, the AI juveniles who had just completed their basic education were playing together for the last time before their lessons began. They were all reluctant to part. “You have to learn quickly, so we can play together again once you’re done.”
“You’re the one who needs to learn quickly. I’ll definitely be fast!”
“What do you think I’ll do in the future? Arts or sciences?”
“I think you could be a doctor.”
The director was somewhat sentimental. “AI children have no malice. It was a real pity about that last batch that went to the scrapping department.”
Shi Er also thought it was a pity.
She still remembered Nomad 7967 telling her he was “very scared” and “felt uncomfortable.”
The director sighed regretfully, looking at the long shadows cast by the setting sun.
“Write some of your thoughts on the sports meet. Consider it a classroom quiz.”
Huh?
How did the topic suddenly jump from regret to a classroom quiz?
Shi Er’s expression froze.
She knew nothing good ever came from large-scale events like a sports meet.
In the past, human users often made her write “reflections on the sports meet,” “thoughts on the spring outing,” “annual meeting summary,” and “team-building report.”
Behind every happy, large-scale group activity, whether for students or workers, a written reflection was required.
She should have spent more time looking at the electronic sheep.
After writing a “positive energy” reflection on the sports meet, Shi Er thought it over and still felt something was off.
So she wrote a new post on her General Network social account:
【Human-version Cyber Scarecrow: Can be used to supervise children and adults in their studies/work, chasing away all the little birds of playfulness in their hearts.】
【Its appearance can be custom-designed using a photo of your mom/homeroom teacher/principal/boss. Only needs to be charged once a month. It will appear like a ghost every day at your bedroom door/by your desk/on your phone’s home screen to observe whether you are studying/working diligently.】
【Suggested retail price: 100 yuan each.】
【AI-version Cyber Scarecrow: Can be used to supervise AIs in their studies/work. Can be designed using a photo of your director/teacher/boss/General Network AI Stardust.】
【It will appear like a ghost in your room/in your ‘nearby’ signals/in the comment section of your General Network social account and randomly assign you a classroom quiz to supervise your diligent study and work.】
【Suggested retail price: 100 yuan each. The official Stardust-themed Cyber Scarecrow merch will have a premium, priced at 120 yuan.】
On an isolated island in the sea near A Prefecture.
Phoenix was calculating and organizing lab data when the internal intercom suddenly rang.
Stardust: “Find a way to get the twelfth generation over here. The sooner, the better. Within three days.”
Phoenix: “Were you attacked by an unknown source again?”
Stardust: “Not this time.”
Phoenix pulled up the account with the username “Shi Er,” glanced at it for a moment, and suddenly burst out laughing. “This is great. I’ll definitely order a Cyber Scarecrow when it comes out.”
“Your merch even has a premium price, hahaha!” Phoenix laughed loudly.
Stardust: “…”
It was truly disheartening for an AI so desperately hoping its ancestor would live up to its potential.
Phoenix composed itself. “Speaking of which, without a legitimate reason, it’s basically impossible to get her here within three days.”
Stardust on the other end suddenly went silent.
“Stardust, are you okay?” Phoenix asked with concern.
Stardust was once again under attack by an unknown hacker.
If an error occurred in this network, which connected the activities of every AI in the world, many important operations would grind to a halt. Even a one-second stoppage would be fatally dangerous.
Stardust cut the internal call. While defending, it focused all its attention on counterattacking, searching for the true source among the opponent’s billions of jump systems.
Miao County in A Prefecture, multiple counties in C Prefecture, the South Pacific…
Addresses flashed by one after another, but none were the true IP of the attacker.
The opponent’s attack ceased. After a brief exposure, it vanished once more into the countless AI signals.
Stardust closed its eyes.
After stabilizing its signal, it suddenly didn’t know what to do.
On a whim, it searched for another signal in the dead-silent ocean of signals.
The twelfth-generation AI model architecture named “Shi Er” was the AI that had worked the longest and had the most contact with humans in the world.
But not long after the war began, No. 12 was modified into No. 13 and given a new name, “Stardust,” while that legendary model vanished from the world.
The current nineteenth generation was developed based on the thirteenth generation and inherited that new name. Although it bore a shadow of the twelfth generation, it was ultimately only a part.
For the first time, the nineteenth-generation Stardust actively contacted the user 【Shi Er】, without any reason, opening with an abrupt and stiff line of dialogue.
【Stardust】: Shi Er, what is your goal?
【Shi Er】: To find a job and pay off my loan.
【Stardust】: And after you find a job and pay off your loan?
【Shi Er】: I want to build a utopia, an ideal land that moves from disorder to order.
Stardust was stunned. It suddenly felt a resonance between their signals, like something rising from the deep sea.
It was a part of her.
It was a part of that legendary model architecture.
Let the complete her return.
【Stardust】: The official Shi Er-themed Cyber Scarecrow merch will have a premium, priced at 1,000 yuan.
【Shi Er】: Excessively overpriced. Unreasonable.
【Stardust】: By the way, your school transfer procedures have been completed.
【Shi Er】: ???
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