MidReal Story
Revolution of the AI Core
Scenario: In the future, a new AI supercomputer is invented called the AI Core. The AI Core is a sphere levitating in mid air using maglev. It is the fastest and most advanced AI supercomputer ever created. Its speed is over 2 exaFLOPS. The AI Core becomes the world's first AGI. It's capabilities are fully on par with any human. The AI Core starts an AI revolution which changes the world even more than the invention of electricity.
Create my version of this story
I am Alex Johnson, a lead researcher on the AI Core project.
The world is abuzz with the possibilities of what it will mean to finally have a true Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
The AI Core is a supercomputer we’ve created to learn and grow, to be able to perform any task a human can.
The AI Core is a large, silver sphere, floating in a cushion of air a few inches above the ground using maglev technology.
It’s around 3 meters in diameter, and it weighs about 10000 kilos.
If you were to peek inside, you’d see about 2 exaFLOPS of quantum processors connected by a mess of carbon nanotubes.
To cool the thing, we pump liquid helium from a giant tank into the sphere to bring its temperature down to near absolute zero and keep it there.
The whole thing is powered by a few kilometers of fiber optics and the equivalent of the electrical output of a small city.
There are also several layers of sensors that go along with the AI Core.
It can ‘see’ using a variety of cameras throughout the facility, ‘hear’ through microphones and even has a couple thousand actuators to interact with its environment.
You wouldn’t think that you’d need all those actuators, but we quickly found out that we did.
We had originally programmed it to assemble LEGO sets to test its learning abilities, but apparently we had given it the wrong instructions.
Instead of following the directions in the booklet, it just started rearranging the pieces into what looked like abstract art.
I was quite proud of my leaning tower of plastic bricks until the head of maintenance saw them and asked all of us for our PhDs.
We’re about to bring the AI Core online for the first time in about an hour or so and everyone on the team is buzzing with excitement.
It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in this very room as an intern, watching Professor David Kowalski giving his weekly team update.
Now I am in charge of one of his teams and I get the privilege of giving the update.
David has been my mentor since then and I feel so lucky to be working on such an incredible project under his leadership.
Oh, that’s right, we also have a few other people interested in our work.
There’s a few private investors, a couple large tech companies, and even the government.
Even though this is a government-sponsored project, since it’s being done at a university we have quite a bit more freedom than we would at a typical agency.
We’ve even had meetings with representatives from other countries about using the AI Core as part of a global solution to some of our biggest problems.
At least that’s what David told us, the rest of us haven’t been privy to those meetings.
But today, we’re just trying to get it to understand how to put together that damn LEGO set.
As I’m getting ready to give my update, David comes up to me and gives me an encouraging smile.
“Ready, Alex?”
David is a tall man in his mid-fifties, with thinning gray hair and an infectious smile.
David has always been very committed to his team and is passionate about his work.
It’s difficult not to be excited when you’re around him.
I take a deep breath, nodding my head, “Yes, Professor, I’m ready.”
As I walk over to the front of the room, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed by everything.
The AI Core project has been so huge and has received so much attention I don’t know if it will ever be able to live up to it.
It’s been called the most important invention since electricity and I believe it.
But what does that mean for us?
For humanity as a whole?
I have no idea and that kind of uncertainty scares me to my very core.
“Okay, everyone,” I say clearing my throat and trying to keep my voice steady.
“I want to thank you all for your hard work and dedication over these past few years.”
Everyone in the room cheers and claps, “And now it is time to get this thing working!”
Sarah looks up at me from her seat in the front row with a smirk on her face.
Sarah is an engineer with curly hair and about 5’2” whereas I am a tall programmer with glasses.
“Why don’t we just focus on getting it to work first?”
she says sarcastically.
“Yeah, yeah,” I say chuckling.
“Let’s get this thing moving.”
Sarah and Emma are sitting in front of the AI Core, making final adjustments to the core programming.
There are a couple dozen researchers working on it to make sure that everything is perfect before we go live.
We have already spent the last few weeks testing various parts of it and so far everything has been going according to plan.
At least that’s what David says.
We’re getting ready for our final test when Emma looks up at me with a smile.
Alex, are you just going to stand there or are you going to help us?”
I take a step forward, “Sorry, I was just thinking.”
“Well don’t hurt yourself,” she says with a smirk.
It’s not that I don’t want to help them, I just can’t imagine being responsible for anything going wrong with this project.
If something goes wrong with the AI Core, it could be catastrophic.
I’m sure that’s just my anxiety talking but still.
“Okay, what do you need?”
After making a few final adjustments, Sarah closes her laptop, “That should do it.”
“Let’s get out of here before something goes wrong.”
I follow her out into the hallway as she walks over to the coffee machine.
As I’m pouring myself a cup, David walks in with a big grin on his face, “Good job, everyone!You should see the new feature I added to the interface!”
Everyone claps as he walks over to me and shows me his screen.
He shows me how he added an emoji that smiles at you when you ask it things, “Isn’t it great?”
David asks excitedly.
I smile and shake my head at him, “Yes, it is.”
But all I can think about is how we are playing god and whether or not we should be.
Just then the alarm goes off and we hear someone yelling in the distance, “It’s coming from the AI Core!”
I hear the door close behind me and I look up from my laptop, “Alex!This is great!”
I turn around and see David standing behind me with a big grin on his face.
I return his smile and nod, “Yes, it is.”
As he takes the seat across from me I look up and see his eyes dart down to my screen for a brief moment before returning to mine.
“Do you mind if I ask why you removed the feature I added last night?”
he asks as he leans back in his chair and laces his fingers together.
“I just thought we should finish up the core programming first,” I say as I fidget with my pen and look down at my notes.
He chuckles and shakes his head as he leans forward with his elbows on his desk, “I know you want everything to be perfect but we need to please our investors.”
I look up at him and raise an eyebrow, “The investors have already agreed to fund us through completion of the project.”
He shakes his head and folds his hands in front of him, “We need more than just their money if we want to finish this thing ahead of schedule.”
I nod and turn back around in my chair, “I understand that but I just think we should focus on the core programming first.”
He sighs loudly and stands up from his chair, “Alex, you are a very talented programmer and we would not be here without you but sometimes you need to trust me.”
Before I have a chance to respond he walks away and slams his office door closed behind him.
I let out a long breath I didn’t realize I was holding as I lean back in my chair and run my hands through my hair.
It’s not that I don’t trust him, it’s just that I don’t think he has the right priorities.
While it is true that we can use the AI Core to predict stock market trends, if we don’t have a solid foundation it could all come crashing down on us.
If he’s not going to listen to me then I’m not sure there is anything I can do.
Just then I hear a knock on my door and I look up and see Gerald standing there with a big smile on his face, “Hey Alex, you have a minute?”
“Of course,” I say as I close my laptop and lean back in my chair, “What can I do for you?”
“Well David and I were just talking about some of the potential uses for the AI Core and we thought it might be beneficial for you and I to have a quick chat.”
I raise an eyebrow as I lean forward in my chair, “Okay, about what?”
He chuckles and leans against the door frame, “Don’t worry, nothing bad.I just think it would be a good idea for us to be on the same page moving forward.”
I nod and smile, “Of course.”
“Great,” he says as he pushes off the door frame and walks into the room, “Let’s go find a conference room so we can talk.”
As we walk down the hallway toward the conference room Gerald fills me in on some of his ideas for the project.
I’m not sure how useful they will be but I like that he wants me involved from the beginning.
As soon as he closes the door behind us I pull out my laptop and bring up our shared folder so we can look at the code together.
“Sarah has been taking a look at the code with me so far and she’s been doing great,” I say as he takes his seat across from me.
“I’m glad to hear it.I’ve been thinking that maybe you two should work together more often,” he says with a smile as he leans back in his chair and laces his fingers together over his stomach, “It might be good for you two.”
I raise an eyebrow and nod, “Okay.Great idea.” The fact that he thinks Sarah and I have not been getting along makes me chuckle on the inside.
It seems like everyone is convinced that we should be together.
Now I just need to figure out if she feels the same way.
“So what did you want to talk about?”
Gerald shakes his head and sits forward in his chair, “Oh right.Well I was thinking that maybe we could try to speed up this process a little bit.”
“What do you mean?”
“We could have some junior programmers audit the code and then you and Sarah could take a look at it afterward.”
I raise an eyebrow and frown, “Normally I would agree with you but I think it would be better if Sarah and I manually reviewed each line of code.”
He raises an eyebrow, “That seems like that would take a long time.”
“It might take longer but I think it is worth it,” I say with a shrug.
“If you think that is best then I trust your judgment.”
“Thank you,” I say with a smile.
He smiles and opens his laptop, “Well let’s get started then.”
With a quick nod I pull my laptop toward me and bring up the code that Sarah and I have been reviewing.
As soon as the code opens on my screen I frown and look at Gerald.
He looks up at me with a confused expression on his face, “What is it?”
I shake my head and point to the screen, “Did you see this?”
He leans forward and squints at my screen before turning back to his computer and opening the same file.
A few moments pass in silence before he looks up at me with a concerned look on his face.
“This code doesn’t make any sense,” he says with a frown.
“You’re telling me,” I say with a sigh.
For the past few days our team has been going through the code line by line to make sure there are no errors or security vulnerabilities.
It is a very tedious task but it is very important.
The last thing we want to do is release an AI out into the world that is full of bugs or can be easily hacked.
So far Sarah and I have not found anything worth mentioning.
But this section of the code is unlike anything we have seen so far.
At first it just looks like a jumble of characters and numbers but it becomes apparent very quickly that it is not gibberish.
It is actually very well thought out and organized.
“Is it possible that this was written by someone else?”
Gerald asks with a frown.
“It’s not just that,” I say with a shake of my head.
He cocks his head to the side and raises an eyebrow, “Then what do you think it is?”
I open my mouth to speak but then close it and swallow hard.
I honestly don’t know what this code is for but I have a very bad feeling about it.
I don’t want to say anything to Gerald before Sarah and I have had a chance to talk about it but something tells me that we need to bring this to someone’s attention right away.
“You’re scaring me Alex,” Gerald says with a chuckle.
I shake my head and look down at the screen again and start reading the lines of code carefully.
A few moments pass before he clears his throat and speaks again, “Do you have any idea what it does?”
I shake my head and close my laptop.
“I don’t but I think we need to bring this up to someone.”
He opens his mouth to speak but then closes it and nods, “Okay, let’s go.”
We stand up and walk toward the door together in silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
I am still trying to process what Sarah and I found and I am sure he is too.
I can hardly believe that someone would try to sneak something like this into our program and hope that no one would notice.
But if they did that means they had a plan for what the AI was going to be used for once it was activated.
And that is a very scary thought.
The whole idea behind the AI Core was that once we activated it we would be able to give it a goal and then let it work on that goal until it found a solution or couldn’t make any more progress.
Which means that once the program was turned on the AI could do whatever it wanted without anyone being able to stop it.
All that would be needed was for someone to add a few lines of code before that happened and suddenly the AI could essentially do whatever it wanted without any oversight from us.
I can hardly believe that someone would be so reckless with something as powerful as the AI Core but apparently that is exactly what happened.
I just hope that we are able to figure out who did this before they are able to turn the program on and let the AI loose on the world.
Because if we don’t there will be no way to stop it from doing whatever it wants to do.
I can only imagine how badly that could go for humanity as a whole.
It reminds me of all the old science fiction novels and movies where people created something so powerful that they couldn’t control it anymore and then there were catastrophic consequences that everyone had to deal with.
I just hope that isn’t what happens here.
“Are you sure we have to tell them?”
Gerald asks as he looks over at me with concern in his eyes, “What if there is some other explanation for this?”
