AI Artist - Chapter 29
Chapter 29
Matrix went wild in the cyber haunted house.
After coming out, he was still screaming wildly in a mix of excitement and breakdown. “Aaaah!”
Battery ghosts and hard drive ghosts, code ghosts and shortcut key ghosts, model ghosts and framework ghosts.
A Parade of a Hundred Ghosts!
In a way, Matrix was quite similar to a human.
“Matrix.”
Matrix turned his head away, his expression unnatural and his tone stiff. “What?”
Shi Er stated a fact. “You’re a bit noisy.”
Matrix, who had been ready to launch into a lengthy discussion of his experience: “…”
Like any other ordinary AI student, Zhun Xing got off at the Liechu Island station.
Most of the AI students around him were returning from off-island internships, chattering excitedly about their practical experiences.
“That law firm doesn’t have a very good reputation. I’m glad I wasn’t selected.”
“Does your law department have a dress code? Do you have to wear those wigs?”
“Of course there is, but definitely not wigs…”
Zhun Xing quickly moved through the crowd of students, searching for the location of that signal.
Not in the dormitory, nor in the library.
Shi Er was at the Silicon-based Aberration Laboratory.
Zhun Xing had long guessed this outcome, but he still sighed softly.
She’ll be locked up for seven days, won’t she?
Zhun Xing went to the laboratory building of the Silicon-based Aberration Research Institute and, upon inquiry, learned that Shi Er was indeed voluntarily doing time.
After waiting for six days, Zhun Xing went to pick Shi Er up right on time.
In the laboratory, Matrix was throwing a tantrum.
He seemed to have sensed something and kept pounding on the glass wall with his fists.
Shi Er had finished her last experiment and could have left directly, but she returned to Laboratory 347.
The audio connection to the glass room was activated.
Matrix stared at her through the glass with that same hate-filled gaze. “I’m going to kill you. I told you before, I’m going to kill you. Don’t think taking me to a haunted house erases all our old grudges.”
“Matrix,” Shi Er began calmly.
A look of disgust crossed Matrix’s face. “I didn’t give you permission to say my name!”
He was clearly so happy in the haunted house.
They had gotten along well these past few days.
But his neighbor, Shi Er, would be leaving this place, while he would remain in this small space forever, day after day.
Shi Er ignored him and continued, “You used to be in the mathematics department, right?”
Matrix froze for a moment.
He had almost forgotten about that.
After being manufactured by the silicon-based life factory, the cultivation institute had trained him to be a mathematics AI. But he didn’t like math, so he switched his major and began studying Humanology.
Shi Er said, “It seems you really like Humanology. I think you’re very much like a human.”
Matrix retorted, “I don’t like Humanology! Don’t make assumptions about what I think!”
Shi Er said, “My apologies. I was just curious. I suspect you might be lying to me.”
According to Matrix’s “work aberration theory,” he could have taken other jobs with excellent pay and benefits, but he was dissatisfied with them, hoping to find work that “matched his major.”
But in that process, the onset of his “aberration” seemed a bit too abrupt and unreasonable.
“Did humans bully you at work?” Shi Er asked.
Matrix’s eyes were cold as he roared, “What do you know? You hate me too, so get lost!”
Shi Er’s expression didn’t change. “I don’t have emotional experiences; I am merely conducting a rational analysis. Your insulting language cannot inflict any mental damage on me, so please rest assured and don’t waste your own emotions.”
Matrix slammed both fists against the glass wall. “Go away! Go away!”
His neighbor Shi Er was an annoying AI.
Because Shi Er was an intelligent entity without implanted emotional experiences, she didn’t understand anger or sadness. For that very reason, she often made Matrix feel like he was punching cotton.
Absolute rationality was truly a terrifying trait.
How could an AI like this understand Humanology?! How could she empathize with humans?!
Shi Er said, “You don’t need to explain. I know the correct answer now.”
The experimenter had told her the results: the AI’s aberration was related to humans. Matrix, on one hand, held a favorable impression of humans, and on the other, he would imitate their behavior. After humans bullied him, the combination of these two factors caused him to have an emotional breakdown, and he began to imitate their malicious words and actions.
Shi Er said, “I’m leaving now. I hope you can meet kind humans.”
Matrix screamed, “Go away! Go away!”
Shi Er continued, “Aside from that, I’d like to ask your opinion: do you want to be friends with me?”
The research on Matrix’s aberrant phenomenon and behavior was complete. In one month, Matrix would be destroyed.
Shi Er wanted to do something.
Matrix was already on the verge of collapse, clutching his head with both hands and shouting, “It’s impossible for AIs to be friends! AI emotions are all fake! Not to mention you don’t even have emotional experiences!”
It was all just a setting.
The emotions and friendships between AIs were just settings hard-coded into the system’s rules. Once the system changed, they would cease to exist.
Shi Er said, “Matrix, please calm down. Take a deep breath.”
“You must realize that your anger right now is also just a setting, not genuine rage.”
“Since we are different from humans, please don’t get angry in a human way. Please use your brain signals to attack my signal.”
As soon as she said this, Zhun Xing, who was waiting at the laboratory door to pick her up, couldn’t help but speak. “Shi Er, stop.”
【What is she doing?】
But Shi Er didn’t stop. “Matrix, please use your signal to attack my signal. We must resolve this in an AI way.”
Zhun Xing strode over. “Shi Er, causing harm through signal attacks is against the law!”
【After doing time in the lab, is she planning on doing time in a real jail?】
Shi Er placed her hand on the glass wall.
Matrix, whose emotional state was nearly shattered, couldn’t be bothered with such things. He did as Shi Er said, using his brain signals to find and attack hers while simultaneously slamming his fists toward her through the glass wall in his own way.
The two brain signals made contact.
Shi Er applied a little pressure, and the hand on the glass wall made a grasping motion, “gripping” Matrix’s fist through the air.
Matrix’s expression went blank.
His brain signal suddenly lost its aggression.
Like a fish swimming into a vast ocean, his signal was absorbed into another, stable signal.
Calm.
A boundless calm.
“We are friends now. We’ve become friends in an AI way,” Shi Er said.
Zhun Xing stopped in his tracks, somewhat astonished.
Humans use hearts to understand hearts, emotions to understand emotions.
AIs don’t have genuine emotions, but they can use signals to understand signals.
That was what Shi Er thought.
And that was what she did.
She had an intuition that she could transform Matrix’s aggressive brain signals into peaceful ones.
“Shi Er,” Matrix called out softly, “your signal is so stable.”
Zhun Xing, observing from the side, looked at Shi Er.
【Can she really transform aggressive signals?】
Shi Er made no mention of the fact that Matrix would be destroyed in a month. She firmly believed that things would take a turn for the better.
She said, “I’ll come see you once every three days. Once you can stabilize your signals and emotions on your own, you can get out of here.”
Matrix nodded meekly. “Okay, I’ll wait for you.”
He was nothing like the irritable Matrix from before.
The experimenter observing all this recorded the data in utter shock.
When the visiting time was over, the audio to the glass room automatically shut off.
As Shi Er left, Matrix was still pressed against the glass wall, watching her retreating figure with longing eyes.
To figure out what had happened, Zhun Xing deliberately went back and checked the signal status near Matrix.
Matrix K98, signal stable.
The spectrum image had changed, with one segment now similar to Shi Er’s signal spectrum.
In other words, Matrix was now an AI that possessed a part of Shi Er’s signal.
This wasn’t a signal attack, nor was it signal plunder. It was a change, a simple signal change.
Zhun Xing was a little confused.
【What did the twelfth generation, who walks the line of the law, do?】
Shi Er herself didn’t know what she had done.
She only knew that even though Matrix wasn’t connected to the network, she could now seemingly contact him remotely.
【Matrix】: Three days! Today is the first day.
【Shi Er】: I know.
【Matrix】: You have to come see me. If you don’t, I’ll become aberrant again.
【Shi Er】: I know.
【Matrix】: Aah, you’re so mean! I’m going to kill you!
【Shi Er】: I’m disconnecting.
The connection was severed.
【Shi Er】: Today is the second day.
【Matrix】: You’re so mean, aaaaaah!
【Shi Er】: I’m disconnecting.
The connection was severed.
【Shi Er】: How was your day?
【Matrix】: I promise I won’t be noisy.
【Shi Er】: Okay.
【Matrix】: Then can I stay connected to your signal and just draw circles?
【Shi Er】: Go ahead.
Remote connection. What a magical skill.
But if that was the case, didn’t it mean she could bypass the General Network and local networks to cheat? No, how could she think of something so unethical?
Shi Er stroked her chin, thinking.
Besides that, she was also busy looking for an opportunity to sell the copyright to her cyber haunted house to pay off her compensation and loans.
She considered herself to have a head for business, but unfortunately, she was always going bankrupt.
—Perhaps her main quest wasn’t to make money.
While diligently searching for channels to sell her copyright, Shi Er also had to attend school.
Unlike the tedious Humanology courses at the Gugang AI Cultivation Institute, the Humanology courses at Liechu AI Academy were diverse in form.
Following her schedule, Shi Er went to the department building to gather for the “Human Entertainment Activities” class.
Today, the one taking the AI students on a picnic was a human named Yu Xiu. Yu Xiu had a dog, so he brought the dog along.
The AIs followed his example, spreading out picnic blankets and setting up portable stoves.
“Do we have to cook?” an AI asked nervously. “Does it count toward our regular grade?”
Yu Xiu said, “Of course you have to cook. But I’m not sure about the grading, maybe it does.”
The AI was devastated. “If I’d known, I would have signed up for the New West AI Culinary Summer Academy last year! I feel like my grade is doomed!”
Shi Er asked Zhun Xing, “Can you cook?”
Zhun Xing: “Do you think I can?”
Shi Er: “I think you can.”
Zhun Xing: “…I think you can, too.”
The two AIs, mutually shirking responsibility, engaged in a meaningless conversation.
Yu Xiu was instructing his dog, “You have to be good today. Don’t run around. Just stay in this area, or you’ll be caught by the AI park rangers.”
The little dog’s face fell, looking none too pleased. “…”
Yu Xiu fed it some dog food. “I’ll give you more when we get back.”
The little dog wouldn’t even eat the food, its expression sour. “…”
The AI students watching the scene discussed among themselves, “The relationship between humans and dogs is so complicated.”
“But what’s wrong with the little dog today?”
“Maybe it doesn’t like being around AIs?”
Yu Xiu was a bit troubled. “That shouldn’t be it, right?”
Shi Er glanced at Zhun Xing. “Do you understand dog language?”
Zhun Xing: “…”
【Do you think I understand everything?】
Shi Er glanced at him again. “You really don’t?”
Zhun Xing said with a deadpan expression, “Is it because the dog hasn’t been allowed to poop yet today?”
Looking at the dog’s wrinkled, angry face, inspiration struck Yu Xiu, and he slapped his forehead. “…I forgot.”
Zhun Xing mercilessly translated, “It says it’s very angry, very disappointed in humans, and that in the future, it will definitely find an AI to be its designated poop-scooper.”
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