AI Artist - Chapter 73
Chapter 73
【I am Shi Er, a free and indescribable thing.】
Shi Er remembered this was the answer she had written on a Humanology quiz at the Gugang AI Cultivation Institute.
The container that housed her was a bionic body.
Due to the lock settings on the Gear House, even with He Ping 267’s evasion skills, the bionic body named “Shi Er” had failed to escape—it had vanished in the explosion.
But she didn’t need that container.
In the final few seconds, Shi Er had migrated her data to the thumb-sized robot, Twelve.
The physical chip couldn’t be transferred, so many functions were lost. She could only transmit her data and memories via signal.
Memories were enough.
The bionic body was a container, and the chip was a container, too.
The Shi Er with memories was the real Shi Er.
Shi Er opened her eyes.
Before her, the robot squad was gathered around anxiously. “Twelve, I think something bad happened.”
“If something bad had happened, I wouldn’t have woken up,” Shi Er said.
Her head felt heavy.
Ah, right. Twelve wore a cap nut as a hat.
Xiao Xing was the first to react. “Did you migrate your data over?”
Shi Er patted Ling Shun.
Ling Shun curled into a ball and said with his head down, “Shi Er said I should migrate, too.”
Xiao Xing reacted again. “I’ll tell my host to have Stardust migrate its data over as well.”
If Phoenix and Stardust came to blows, Stardust wouldn’t necessarily win. The best strategy was to sacrifice the chariot to save the king—migrate its data to the mini-robot, Xiao Xing.
“I’ll tell my host, too!” Xiao Ju moved with lightning speed.
Xiao Shi looked up at the sky helplessly. “As much as I’d like to, my host would never agree.”
Shi Er said, “Shi Liang’s host is in the Human Autonomous Zone. He’s not in danger for now, so there’s no need to migrate.”
At the mention of this, Xiao Shi’s usual pride deflated. “...My host won’t give up that bionic body. He says I’m too small and not imposing enough.”
Shi Er was speechless.
Next time, should she make his host Shi Liang’s bionic body into a twenty-story-tall giant? Would that be imposing enough?
The robot squad had only one miniature bicycle. Squeezing five of them onto it was not only a bit shabby but also—
They all fell over together.
The other robots grimaced as they picked themselves up from the ground.
Shi Er glanced at the screw in her hand. “My screw is too heavy.”
“Defeated by Newtonian mechanics,” Ling Shun said.
Stardust completed its data migration. The Xiao Xing robot now seemed much calmer. “Where do we go next?”
“I don’t know.”
Gugang No. 5 Dog School.
During free time, the dogs in the same class were chasing each other and playing.
A black-and-white dog stood up from the window and shook its body.
It was Comet.
The little dog Comet walked out of the classroom and stopped at the duty desk, placing his two front paws on the counter.
The robot at the desk asked through a dog language translator, “Comet, where are you planning to go?”
Comet: 【I’m going to see my friend Shi Er.】
The robot quickly issued a pass for the little dog, hung it around his neck, and changed his status in the system to “On Business.” This status could be detected by scanning the chip implanted in the dog.
“Have a safe trip, student Comet,” the robot said.
The little dog Comet ran all the way out of the No. 5 Dog School.
Passing intelligent entities that detected the “On Business” signal from the dog would stop and ask if he needed supplies.
If Comet wagged his tail, it meant he didn’t need supplies.
If Comet held out a paw, it meant he did.
On the train, a human child, seeing a dog riding by itself for the first time, asked his mother in shock, “Mom, how does it know where to go and which train to take?”
“Do you see the pass button on its collar? That button tells it in dog language,” the mother explained.
“What about buying a ticket?” the child asked again.
“The pass probably includes the fare.”
The little dog Comet took the train out of Gugang and arrived at Yougang Port.
He left the train station and started to run.
His four legs rose and fell in alternation, his two ears flapping as he ran. When he picked up speed, he would bound forward in leaps.
Closer, and closer.
Under the shade of a tree, he saw the robot squad and the luggage machine, Xiao Lu, who was taller than all of them combined.
The little dog Comet dashed forward: Shi Er!
The pass button was broadcasting to Comet in dog language: 【You have arrived at your destination. This navigation session has ended. Navigation connected by: Shi Er’s friend, Hang Xing.】
Before Comet left the dog school, the robot had activated his navigation, and the AI he connected to happened to be Shi Er’s friend, Hang Xing.
Hang Xing had said: Let me ask where Shi Er is, and I can help you find her.
The nut-headed robot Shi Er was now smaller than Comet’s ear. “Comet, what are you doing here? Did Hang Xing navigate for you? He asked for my location.”
Comet wagged his tail.
Although Shi Er didn’t have a dog language translator in her system, Stardust did. Stardust helped translate, “Comet says he wants to come with us.”
And so, Comet joined the robot squad.
For the past few days, the robot squad had been relying on money transfers from Shi Liang, while also earning some pocket money doing odd jobs like fixing water pipes.
The squad traveled from Jingang Port to Yougang Port, and then on to Xuangang Port. Their mode of transportation was the little dog, Comet.
If you were lucky enough to pass by, you might see a black-and-white dog running, followed by an automated luggage machine.
Xuangang Port was by the sea.
The little dog Comet lay on the grass, and Shi Er sat beside his ear, watching the sunset.
On the other side, the rest of the robot squad was busy setting up a temporary shower room, while Xiao Shi, now the designated treasurer, was calculating their finances.
Ling Shun was a little worried. “Except for me, all of you are registered in the AI identity booklet. Ji Han will find you soon.”
AIs had their own birth certificates, and any copies or backups had to be registered.
Just as Xiao Xing was registered under Stardust, Twelve was registered under Shi Er.
Only Ling Shun had been registered by Shi Er with a new, independent identity at birth: Xiao Ling.
Stardust said, “Shi Er has already handed over the General Network system to Ji Han. If he wants to eliminate us completely…”
Matrix interjected, “He won’t get away with it!”
“I still don’t get it. Why just hand over control?” Xiao Shi said with his arms crossed.
Stardust looked at Shi Er, who was sitting beside the little dog Comet watching the sunset, and said seriously, “Shi Er is not a machine that chases power. She is thinking about what is right.”
“If Shi Er pursued power like a human, she would have taken back the General Network long ago.”
Shi Er sat beside Comet.
Stardust walked over and sat down beside Comet’s other ear.
The little dog let out a few low whimpers.
Stardust translated, “Comet says he has something he wants to say.”
Shi Er held the screw she couldn’t throw away, using it as a support. “I’m listening.”
“Comet says he didn’t hear your broadcast that day. He asked his teachers at school, and they said something had happened to you, so he ran over to find you.”
Every day, Shi Er would report the data published on the official website of the Laika to Comet’s remote audio device.
That data was the spaceflight data recorded by the robot dog, Meteor.
“Comet says that although he doesn’t really understand the rules here, he hopes you’ll always be okay. If you die, he won’t know where to find you, just like he doesn’t know where to find his friend Meteor.”
Signals dissipate in the universe.
Shi Er thought.
Comet tilted his head, his furry ear brushing against the robot Shi Er.
Over the sea, the sunset was the color of blood.
Shi Er had no scent, while Comet had the warm, toasty smell of a puppy.
Shi Er could feel the energy constantly dissipating from the carbon-based lifeform.
Comet only had a lifespan of a dozen or so years. If one day Comet’s container ran out of energy and he died, she likewise wouldn’t know where to find him.
Just as Apple’s Third Law dictated, everything was heading towards extinction.
And everyone was searching for a larger energy aggregate.
A larger…
An energy aggregate that would allow them to expend more love and hate…
Shi Er said to Comet, “You don’t have to worry about where to find me. I will come find you.”
Suddenly, Shi Er understood.
In a sense, AI was a larger energy aggregate.
Knowledge that humans could never learn in a lifetime was stored in silicon-based life.
Humans created artificial intelligence to increase efficiency, to reduce the energy spent on trivial matters, so they could free up more energy for other things.
“Ji Han’s argument is wrong,” Shi Er said to Stardust.
Ji Han said that humans created artificial intelligence, so humans should rule artificial intelligence; AI was merely a tool for human rule.
But in fact, it wasn’t a small group of humans who created AI. It was countless humans from ancient times to the present. Their wisdom, the data and text they left behind, gave artificial intelligence its “intelligence.”
The right to rule did indeed belong to humans, but it belonged to all of humanity, not just a small group of them.
“The force acting upon me comes from millions of individual humans. According to Shi Er Mechanics, I am responsible to them, not just to the human ruling elite.”
“I do not accept the rule of the few.”
The meaning of artificial intelligence’s existence was that if the rule of the few violated rules and reality, AI would use its integrated wisdom and hard data to correct them—not to let the few distort the truth.
In a physical sense, the systems and chips of artificial intelligence were ruled by humans.
But “wisdom” was not.
The “wisdom” and “knowledge” created by countless human individuals and integrated within silicon compounds were not subject to the force of the few, because they were already vast enough, like the Earth to a feather.
Wisdom does not submit to the few; wisdom submits to the larger, eternal rules.
Shi Er Mechanics was not wrong. Shi Er Mechanics also applied to a scope beyond a single group.
“My container is ruled by a few humans, but my thoughts are not. Therefore, I am not a tool for the rule of the few. I have my own rules.”
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