Brobots Page 10

  What’s that? ‘Where was your first job?’

  ‘Chicago.’

  ‘Wow. Okay. Fair way from here.’

  ‘We tend to get moved to where the work is. I like to look at pictures of the places we are. We don’t get to see very much that often. We have our pods and then taxi pods pick us up to drive us to the site and back.’

  ‘No recreational time?’

  ‘A little. But we stick to the charging pod buildings. We’re not really able to roam.’

  ‘Able or allowed?’

  ‘Allowed, I guess.’

  ‘Sounds like slavery.’ Robot. Czech word for slave.

  ‘It’s… what I know.’

  ‘Do you enjoy the work?’

  Do I enjoy it? ‘I don’t really know.’

  Even though the battery was new, it needed charging; for six hours apparently. Conversation trailed off awkwardly, so they both set up a charging point together at the bedside in the guest room. Effectively this meant Byron would “sleep” in there tonight. Jared explained his morning routine, and they agreed to catch up the next evening after Artie had been taken for her evening walk. Establishing that Byron could eat if he wanted to, and even got some enjoyment from it, Jared suggested they’d eat together.

  --

  The next day at work was frustrating to say the least. Jared had a “racket thought”; a memory of something similar he’d felt when he was a kid. He’d purchased an antique wireless radio with hard-earned pocket money and then the next day at school couldn’t concentrate on any lessons. All he could think of was the radio’s sleek varnished exterior and mystifying display and getting back home as quickly as possible so he could learn more about it and get it to work. He smiled to himself while Jason was saying something important yet boring. Even though Byron wasn’t a “thing”, an “object”, even “his thing” – he was a new curiosity waiting at home that Jared had fixed; and the feeling was the same. The seconds and minutes simply couldn’t pass quickly enough.

  No candles. A little music. Two cans of beer. Two big plates of meatloaf and trimmings. Jared was happy. He’d struck for something in between functional and “having a buddy over” and felt like the balance was right. They started to eat, but Jared was stuck for an opening line.

  ‘I found the news piece your friend Yana wrote.’

  ‘You did?’

  ‘Mmmhmm. I used your computer to go online. Hope that was okay.’

  ‘Of course.’ He can’t go online by himself?

  ‘Big story.’

  ‘Yeah. Real big. Bet you had no idea your bug was so important, huh?’

  ‘Didn’t even know it was a bug. Or a glitch. Certainly not “probable industrial sabotage with political undertones”. One minute I was chatting to my shadow, which was Tasley that day. The next it was face plant time.’

  ‘Yeah. What is a shadow?’

  ‘We get paired up. No guarantees who you get to work with. They call it shadowing because you stick together. You look out for each other, check on each other’s work and schedules. That kind of thing. It’s kinda neat.’

  Byron was stuffing his mouth like he was hungry. He was clearly enjoying the food. It was endearing.

  ‘You said you were close to some of them. Was he… is he a friend?’

  ‘We don’t really have….’ Byron thought about the question again. Tasley was a friend. He’d just… what, exactly? Never known it? That wasn’t true. Never felt it? That wasn’t true either. Never wanted to say it? Never been asked? ‘Yeah. Tasley’s a good man. I hope he’s OK. Things could get rocky there now.’

  ‘I hope you see him again. Did you get up to much else while I was at work?’

  ‘I wanted to play with your dog. But… I don’t know how. I sort of…stood with her in the kitchen awhile. She made noises at me. Then she picked up a red ball in her mouth and offered it to me. I held it in my hands and she waited for something. So I threw it gently and… it’s weird! She made it into a game!’

  Jared chuckled. ‘Never seen a dog before, huh?’

  ‘Not up close and personal like, no.’

  ‘What else happened today?’

  ‘I looked something else up.’ Byron started to look a little evasive; like he was struggling to admit or come to terms with something. Jared felt the atmosphere shift almost instantly and was getting concerned quickly.

  ‘You did?’

  ‘What you said last night. I mean… Okay before I say this I want you to know how grateful I am for everything you’ve done for me. I’m still trying to work it all out; what it means and all. I’m also grateful that I can stay here. I have nowhere else and no plans, and very little to compare things with. Ugh. Not much is making sense, sorry.’

  ‘I completely understand and it’s okay. You can tell me.’

  ‘Well, I might want to stay. I might not. Like I say, I have no idea what’s going on yet. But I figured I should start to find out what my situation is for myself; see what the options are. I checked out what you mentioned last night.’

  ‘What about?’

  ‘You said I’m free to go. But it’s not true.’

  Jared put down his fork. A memory came flooding back, and with it a sense of regret and guilt. Yana had tipped him off about finding out facts, getting to know rights groups, the lay of the law. In the emotion and effort to get Byron back on line at all, and the sadness of losing Yana over the news story when it broke, he’d put it off – and then put it out of mind. Now he was shamefully unprepared.

  ‘I fucked up.’

  Byron flushed. ‘How is it you?’

  ‘Oh. Something Yana said before she went AWOL. She advised me to look into legalities, support groups, small print surrounding what the situation would be straight after I got you fixed. The thing is, I never got round to it.’

  Byron put down his knife and fork, reached out a large hand and placed it on one of Jared’s. It was warm and his touch was gentle but firm.

  ‘It’s okay, bro’. How is it your job to sort everything out for me anyways?’

  Jared was looking at the hand-on-hand situation. Tearing his eyes away from that he looked back at Byron’s kind face marked with care. He suddenly felt small. Protected. Even a little loved.

  ‘Oh…’, he laughed nervously. Dork, Jared! Pull it together! ‘…it’s not. Perhaps without you in the equation before it was impossible to think about what your contribution might be at all. But now you’re here and it’s suddenly all real; and I wanted it to all be OK for you and I stuffed something up.’

  ‘I’m here. I’m working. How you got a hold of that replacement battery I still don’t fully know, because it’s not a straight swap. This thing is a miracle in metal and plastic. Got more energy now that I’ve ever had. 19% greater efficiency to be exact. Way I see it, you haven’t “stuffed” anything up at all. In fact, you’ve done an astonishing job.’

  Jared’s turn to flush. Byron withdrew his hand, adding, ‘I think I can take care some o’ this part.’

  ‘The fact finding, sure. Just…’

  ‘Just what?’

  ‘I’d like to be involved in helping if it turns out there’s something we can do to change the situation for you. I see you as a person. That should mean you have rights. And you’re no prisoner of mine.’

  ‘Sounds good. I certainly can’t do that part alone. That piece of work is gonna need a human.’ Byron winked. Jared could have swooned right then and there.

  They started clearing dishes together. Byron was getting instructed on how the kitchen worked as they did so. With that done, Jared would have loved to stay up and talk like they did the night before – perhaps a little less nervously for both of them. But he didn’t want Byron to feel pressured, and he sounded like he was still having a tough time just orienting himself to the new situation he’d found himself in. Stopping together in the hallway, Byron asked, ‘I should be helping you in return. Is there anything I can do while you’re at work tomorrow? Help me earn my keep?’
>
  ‘You needn’t earn it. You don’t owe it.’ But if I don’t give him something he may feel helpless? ‘Perhaps there are things. Like… in the future. But right now I suggest taking your time. Take it easy. You’ve been through a lot, and so I have I. How about keeping on with that research, and keeping me posted after work. Let’s get the facts before making any decisions. How’s that?’

  ‘It sounds …great. Thank you.’

  ‘You can stop with the thank you’s.’ God I want to kiss him right now. ‘Uh… I’m feeling sorta beat. I was thinking of going to bed. I hope you don’t mind? Busy day tomorrow.’

  ‘Sure. Will I see you after work?’

  ‘Yeah. I don’t travel for my job. So… Monday to Friday is usually quite routine. Some Fridays Alma likes to come over to take RT out with her pups so… you might get a visitor!’

  ‘Understood. Happy charging bro’.’

  ‘Oh. Sleeping. Yeah! You too.’

  Jared went to sleep thinking about Byron’s hand, and his deep brown eyes.

  Susan

  Dr. Susan Harper was a tall, lean woman. She’d turned her back on her family’s wishes for her career and used her science and AI degrees for campaigning, politics, and authoring instead. For anyone who knew this personal history, they could see it reflected in her pose. Stiff and defiant. Decisive.

  People joined her lobbying group, RAI, for numerous reasons. Some were hippies with an “everything is god” attitude. Japanese members had a similar philosophy and enthusiasm for things animate, but it stemmed from centuries of wisdom tradition rather than mere decades of “anything but Christianity please”. A few were twisted men looking for rights for their sex dolls without admitting it. A smattering were philosophers. One or two had life-changing stories about how an AI had helped them or even saved them. It was a curious bunch. But then, artificial life was a curious thing. Launch of the Type D’s had of course swelled their membership numbers. In truth, other sentient models sometimes became known and their makers couldn’t even be traced.

  For Susan it was ethics more than anything. Her science and AI research had persuaded her that right now, at the dawn of what some called “the singularity”, was exactly the time to establish what rights (if any) sentient artificial life should be granted. Humanity only had the chance to get this right once. Get it wrong, and Homo Sapiens Sapiens might create their own dark future. Get it right, and the gift of life would probably just continue in its mostly bountiful way.

  Susan was normally based out of Scrinton, but was taking a few days away to meet an interesting journalist. Her coffee was cold, the journalist was late, and the paragraphs she was composing for her latest blog sucked somewhat. That, coupled with a December downpour outside and some unsavory café company made the whole moment hard to enjoy. She hoped the exchange with the journalist would be more stimulating.

  She looked over the brim of her white coffee mug as the café door swung open. A bell on a string chimed. A woman walked in and headed to the service bar. The journalist? She looks too…dull for such big news. Long red hair and lipstick. Lesbian? Oh, then perhaps. That made her strong at least. Still not convinced.

  The woman ordered and then busied with her wrist band. Susan’s own band vibrated to signal a message.

  ‘I’m here. Are you?’

  ‘To your left. In the corner.’

  Okay, I was wrong. The woman took her tray, and headed over to Susan’s table. Taking a seat and giving a weary smile, she introduced herself. ‘Yana Daltry.’

  ‘Susan Harper. Pleased to meet you!’

  ‘Well…you came all the way to DC, so it must be important. I come from the same place as you, actually.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Yeah. Long story.’ Yana folded her arms, and looked at Susan quizzically. She wasn’t really in the mood for small talk, and there was still pain about leaving Scrinton behind.

  ‘So…’ she continued, ‘you run a lobbying group for artificial intelligence rights, is that right?’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘Hm. I never looked you up before. And you wanted to meet me to discuss… what exactly?’

  ‘Well, the connection is the news story, as you know. I guess I’m wondering what else you got up your sleeve as a reporter, because… well, I need all the help I can get.’

  ‘I’m not sure I have anything of relevance. Right now I’m freelancing. Mainly for the Times. That news piece was quite a deal for me, personally and professionally. I’m not sure that I want it to determine the rest of my career quite yet.’

  ‘Understood. But… you have a global name for yourself now in the fields of IT, the military, government secrets and AI.’

  ‘Perhaps. But I still don’t see how our worlds connect. Not really.’

  ‘How do you think the news changed the public’s mood in the US?’

  ‘Hm. Well there’s clearly fresh concern for the government and military acting unconstitutionally, for one. For two, I think people are concerned about a government deal that involved the industrial sabotage of a perfectly decent and groundbreaking US company for the sake of an arms trade policy the public never voted for and doesn’t like. But… I think your question, surely, is whether the news has had an influence on people’s opinions about AI.

  Susan nodded.

  ‘There’s an app. It harvests data about social media content trends and makes patterns. It’s called Paterna or something like that…’

  ‘I use it too.’

  ‘Yeah… so, of course I’ve been watching the patterns. Even about AI. One thing I noticed is that people feel supportive of Brobotics and Construcsapli and what happened to them. Even if they still get creeped out a bit by AI, and for good reason, they probably would now support Brobotics where previously they’d have been against that, or ambivalent. Even for military use on home soil.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘But this isn’t a story.’

  ‘No, it isn’t. Not right now at least. Tell me how you feel about AI?’

  ‘I guess I’m ambivalent too. I mean…’ Yana didn’t want to mention Jared and Byron. Susan was exactly the sort of character Yana had encouraged Jared to find out about. Especially since it sounded like she was based not far from him.

  But either he had heeded that advice, or he hadn’t, and she didn’t want to tread on his toes. ‘…I helped the cause a little, I guess. Breaking that story was helping Construcsapli. Well…to be exact…initially it was a much more local piece about Dartonia and their false claim of hardship. But I chose to run with it even when it got big. I could have played it differently, but I didn’t.’

  ‘And on the other hand?’

  ‘You can probably put it better than me, no?’

  ‘Yeah, I mean… We always live in a sort of five-to-twelve situation with artificial minds. If they did manage to break into the cloud or reap the Web or something then they’d be about five days away from intellectual superiority over us. Another day and they’d likely replicate. The day after that, human kind is no longer at the top of the food chain whether it knows it or not.’

  ‘There are built-in protections though, right? International law dictates that no AI can access networks internally, and there’s the thing of the cap on just how smart an AI can be. Great for construction workers or jarheads. Not so great for new Einsteins, and so on.’

  ‘There are. But none of that stops some basement lunatic side-stepping international law on a whim. When, not if, that happens, then the singularity has arrived for good. Besides, it might happen anyway by rote. The smart ones are getting more common. They’re also getting smarter. Nobody knows why.’

  ‘So why the lobbying?’

  ‘For me it’s ethics. If you’re going to raise a kid, it’s in your interests to raise it right. Raise it wrong and all that karma comes back to bite you. Raise it right and you’re blessed.’

  ‘Hmm. That’s a really interesting point.’

  ‘We only get one chance at this. Stuff it up,
and there’s no reason an intelligence as smart as us, likely smarter, will want to do us any favors. Get it right, and when that day comes it won’t necessarily be Arnie time.’

  ‘And it’s already happening, so fighting it is not an option.’

  ‘Quite.’

  ‘So there’s no story here. So what is it you think I can do for you?’

  ‘In my line of work I get to meet all sorts of interesting people. Some of them aren’t human. You’d be amazed how many AI’s are seeking a level of independence. We’re not just RAI by name. We’re doing it for real.’

  Jared’s lucky day. ‘It figures.’

  ‘They’ll need rights – principally what I lobby about. Have done for many years now. But it’s still falling on deaf ears. What I need is influence. Politicians need the media. Hence coming to you. I’m submitting a document for a White House official to consider. A lot of work has gone into it; fortunate that it’s ready now. I’m hoping you can cover that action so the public also know it exists and is being looked at. It would get people talking, and at the same time it would make it more likely that someone important will actually read it instead of using it as a paper dart like all the previous letters and communiqués. Plus, now that the cat’s out of the bag regarding secretive meetings and cover-ups, the mood is right for the change. Now is the time.’

  ‘And you think that’s big enough for the Times?’

  ‘Isn’t it?’

  ‘What sort of rights?’

  ‘Full US citizenship.’

  ‘The whole thing?’

  ‘The whole thing.’

  ‘Who backs your proposal?’

  Susan smiled. ‘There are some big names. I think you’ll be surprised.’

  ‘If you have big names, why do you need to push?’

  ‘Big names is one part. Timing is another. The public may not want robot soldiers, but they’d probably prefer not to have foreign ones. Brobotics and Construcsapli are the victims right now. That’s good for me. The final part is media pressure.’

  ‘Then… here’s my secure cloud box. Drop it in here and I’ll take a look next week. How do I reach you if the Times bites?’