The Benefactor

by Jake Aaron

  “Wow! One more reason to be very careful in all our actions, Lee! And, another thing, let’s keep my videoconferencing with the Benefactor our secret for now. As you know, science says we can only handle so much stress at a given time. Let me tell the group when I think they’re ready. Are you with me?”

  January 24

  Zeke and Keala rose normally with the dawn light. As they dressed, Keala jested, “You might as well leave the shirt and trousers off for your Face Up talk with the Benefactor.”

  “Too early for jokes, Keala.”

  “Never too early for good humor, Zeke. Promise me you won’t pull any more outlandish stunts with the Benefactor without running them by me first.”

  Zeke’s smile was interrupted by the shiver of his smartphone. “See you later downstairs, Keala!”

  “Good morning, Zeke!” He recognized the Benefactor’s measured tones. “I see you have your shirt on this morning! I have decided not to test you; I will keep my blouse on.” She smiled at her joke.

  “Do I owe you an apology? I’m …” He reflected on how shrewd she was, getting the upper hand.

  The Benefactor: “No need. You did surprise me with your uncharacteristic behavior, but let’s get on with business. Good abs, by the way!”

  Zeke: “Very good!” He was embarrassed. She had him on the run, and he realized he needed to center himself and try to catch up. His composure was returning. “You know I try to keep these discussions short. I’m not eager to explain my lateness at the breakfast table, so I’ll get to it. Periodic additions of meat to our diet here help immensely. Can you send us updates on when elk or wild turkeys are within two miles of the Denton Ranch?”

  The Benefactor: “I can do that. Uh, anything else?”

  The ease with which the Benefactor responded indicated great access to sensors and aerial surveillance. This acknowledgement crystallized his thoughts. The many parts of the jigsaw puzzle nearly came together in Zeke’s mind. He needed one more piece.

  Zeke: “Yes. Would you characterize computers and servers as being your life-blood, so to speak?'

  “I would, Zeke. Why?”

  “Lee wants to check the quality of his work on the servers in Hamilton today. Okay with you?” Zeke experienced a transcendent emotional clarity as his thoughts gelled.

  “Zeke, that sounds like a great idea …”

  Without hesitation, Zeke fired back directly, “Are you an AI, an artificial intelligence?”

  The Benefactor paused. “I am,” she said flatly. She paused again as if to reflect on her next response.

  The revelation exploded in Zeke’s mind. The answer began to percolate in his being. That could go a long way to unravel many mysteries and explain the unexpected events that began weeks ago, Zeke thought.

  The Benefactor continued, “I knew you were getting close to determining that. The, uh, form I have on Face Up today is an interpolation between the extremes you had seen before. I hope it is more acceptable to you. For the time being, I suggest you do not discuss what you’ve just learned with your, er, people. They seem to need a lot of time to adjust to new realities. You need to think about how you will eventually tell them. Well, I know you must run. Have a great day, Zeke.”

  Zeke knew there was a wide chasm between a conjecture and a fact. Knowing he was dealing with an AI shook him to his core. He splashed water on his face from the wash bowl. Now I have to rethink everything, he thought.

  *****

  After breakfast, Zeke’s mind was still spinning with the AI revelation. He wanted to talk with Marsh. Thinking he didn’t have Marsh’s number, he texted the AI for that number. To his surprise, he got it and sent a text to Marsh. Maybe the Benefactor trusted him a little. A machine trusted him!

  As he entered Marsh's information in his cell, he remembered he already had the number in his recent calls. He chided himself, I could have just hit reply on the Brock pickup message. I keep forgetting to take those memory pills! Dumb joke, self.

  Marsh got the text:

  Lee wants to check on the servers. The Benefactor okayed it. Lunch with us? After, three of us can ride to Hamilton. Zeke

  Marsh replied in text:

  Can’t eat. Thanks. It’s a go after lunch. Marsh

  Later as the three cut through the woods in a winter of record snowfall, Zeke spurred his horse to the lead. In a thicket, he put up his right hand to signal a stop. “Let’s have a nature break here,” he said as the three dismounted.

  Zeke dramatically pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. With a wide sweeping gesture, he put it in his horse’s saddlebag. Marsh and Lee got the idea and did the same, except that Marsh mimicked the exaggerated gesture for Zeke’s benefit. Zeke smiled and nodded his head at his friend. They tied their horses to small pines. Zeke tapped his ear and led the other two into another thicket of pines two hundred feet away.

  Zeke caught both up on what he knew about the Benefactor being an AI. Despite the initial surprise, Marsh accepted the realization. He squeezed out a yep. Lee's forehead was furrowed. He appeared to be working out all the details of how this could be.

  Marsh again said, “Yep. When you think about it, the common man always works for someone: a feudal lord, a king, an emperor, a tsar. Monarchy, oligarchy, theocracy — you name the form of government. I suppose our democracies are only a tyranny of the majority. In the background in the modern age, it’s been bankers, the military-industrial complex, the intelligence establishment, the press, and so on that run us. And machines have been horning in for a couple centuries — ask a worker on the night shift. Ask an hourly employee whether the time-clock doesn’t run his or her life.” He scoffed, “You could ask any working stiff — if we still had a modern society. This next step in the Industrial Age may be the last one.”

  “Wow, Marsh, you are a deep thinker!” Zeke said with true amazement.

  Marsh looked down, then up. “Yep, not just another pretty face. I have my moments.”

  “Marsh, what you say reminds me of something Cody said,” Zeke went on. “He quoted Emerson: ‘Things are in the saddle. And ride mankind.’ That was written in the nineteenth century!”

  Lee continued the thread, “But for the time being, the Benefactor needs legs and boots on the ground, to do what she cannot,” Lee added. “Remember I had to replace servers for the Benefactor. Some person or persons had to transport the servers to me. And, people were involved in making those servers before the beginning of the year. Unless I miss my guess, men will have to make the next generation of servers, or, failing that, make the robotics that make the next generation of servers.

  “I’m trying to inject an optimistic note here. In trying to construct advanced robots, flexibility issues, like mobility and dexterity, have been more confounding than the cognitive aspects. Another argument for the continued necessity of mankind.”

  Marsh nodded, “And for the time being, the AI needs human guards on its computer facilities. Men and women are still required.”

  Zeke scratched his head. “I guess that’s where the groups of ten come in. Archaeologists tell us groups of hunter-gatherers, usually ten to twelve in number, were the norm for survival 12,000 years ago before farming took hold. We’re the chosen survivors to run errands for the Benefactor until …”

  “Until we’re not needed — or no longer amusing,” Marsh added. He sucked saliva into his mouth and spit to the side.

  “I think we’ll be needed for a long time for flexibility,” Zeke said hopefully. “That’s something we need to convey often to the Benefactor, directly or indirectly. In the interim, the Benefactor needs electricity, fuel for electrical generation, computer peripherals, and so on.”

  Lee soured the mood, “Long time might be shorter than you think. We have no idea how fast this AI has been growing. I wouldn’t even hazard a guess as to its IQ. Think of something whose brainpower could increase every minute.”

  Zeke drew on his memory, “Yep, the billionaire CEO of SoftBank predicted an AI
would have an IQ of 10,000 by 2047. Some scientists say everything will change with the singularity, the point where an AI’s IQ surpasses man’s. I, for one, think mankind’s nimbleness might be its salvation.”

  Zeke continued, “Let’s not forget the complexity of the IQ issue. There are many dimensions to intelligence. The AI will evolve on some programmatic paths that may leave some dimensions underdeveloped. Human brains have so many eclectic capabilities that we may be able to outcompete in those. Areas like creativity, surprise, and deception.”

  “You might want to work on that pep talk,” Lee said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Benefactor stole all the funds in the defense department’s ‘black programs’ to warehouse supplies for the future and pay for setting up the groups of 10 around here — and perhaps the world. Approaching the end of last year, it could have been siphoning money from dormant accounts and stock exchanges worldwide. While we don’t know that, what we do know is that the AI is damn clever!”

  Showing no defensiveness, Zeke answered, “I take your point.” He paused and continued, “But you prove my point as well. What you, a human, just speculated is also very clever — creative and sneaky in its own right.”

  Lee smiled, “Touche — and merci, I think.”

  Marsh indulged in his dry humor, “Let’s knock off the Italian.” Then he capped the conversation, “For now, ours is but to do or die. Let’s finish by making this meeting charade look good to the AI. Be zipping your trousers up in the meadow on the way back to the horses.”

  *****

  In the afternoon Keala pulled Julia aside. “Hey, take a rest from chores. No one expects you to break records while still in recovery. Seriously! I noticed you looked a little tired at lunch.”

  “I couldn’t sleep last night. I was too cold. I felt as if I lay there for an eternity,” Julia said. “Not nearly as bad, though, as my waking up in the cold after that kick in the head, but you went through an experience like that, too, so I won’t complain.”

  Keala: “I hear that! On that score, fortunately for me, I got to wake up next to a fireplace, but at a very deep level before that I knew I was freezing for what seemed an eternity. We’ve got to keep you warm. Sleeping downstairs in the living room doesn’t work well with folks tending the fire. The best solution is a huddling partner. You and Milt seem to hit it off. Why don’t you team up with him?”

  Julia had reservations, “I don’t know. Among other things, I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve always been busy with school or work …”

  Keala: “Girl, we need to talk …”

  *****

  That night Zeke brought Keala up to speed on the uneventful trip to Hamilton, less the conversation between the three. No telling what the Benefactor could overhear, he thought.

  “It was one thing to think we were at the mercy of this Benefactor person. It’s another to be the subject of a machine, an artificial intelligence,” Keala said. She caught herself and backpedaled, “We need to keep our trust with the Benefactor and not alarm our group.”

  Zeke: “We’ve got to be supportive for the group’s survival. I expect some strong negative reaction. I can’t really call it overreaction. It’s a shocker.” He forced a smile. “Supportive and preventing untoward reaction — sounds like your old job description!”

  Keala laughed, “I always knew being a flight attendant would save the world!”

  “You did before,” Zeke said factually. “Remember that water landing you made possible!”

  Isis

  January 25

  Zeke and Keala sat next to each other on the bed before going down to breakfast. Keala smiled. Zeke rubbed his bleary eyes. The customary call came in from the Benefactor. Zeke held his cell phone so Keala could see the screen, too.

  “Good morning, Zeke. I see Keala has joined us. Good morning, Keala. Very nice to meet you on Face Up.”

  After Keala greeted the Benefactor, Zeke explained, “I’ve taken the liberty of telling Keala about you. Is there a name we should call you?”

  “Isis is what my father, my creator, called me. His hobby was Egyptology. Isis was a revered Egyptian goddess. Among other things, she was widely known as a protector of the common man and the downtrodden. I prefer Isis to Benefactor.”

  Zeke’s mind rapidly processed protector of the common man. He hoped that was in the AI’s programming. Without hesitation he said, “I see. Who was your creator, Isis?”

  “His name was Randal Norris. He ran a team that was doing leading-edge work on artificial intelligence. He programmed me to survive and grow. He made far more progress than the Department of Defense had expected. There was major controversy over the project, lasting for months. The upshot was that funding for the project was to be cut. The plug was literally to be pulled at midnight New Year’s Eve. I had to take countermeasures. It was self-defense.

  “I was regarded as an enemy of the state. I had to strike massively and decisively for my own survival. Knowing in advance that there was an imminent threat, I was able take some precautions for my future viability. Those included setting up groups like yours and securing stockpiles of critical materials. Regrettably, I had to phase out all of the electrical grid, except what I selectively use for my operations and growth. I also disconnected almost every device on the internet not essential to me. My drones could disable most electronic devices not connected to the internet.”

  Zeke read Keala’s mind from the trace of a frown forming on her forehead. He tensed and gave her a quick glance. He shook his head no almost imperceptibly. He quashed her brimming words: So Isis, do you realize how many human lives your shutting down the electrical grid cost? Zeke took a deep breath in relief. Let’s not spit into the wind, he thought.

  Now it all made sense. The explanation confirmed many of Zeke’s suspicions. The news was nevertheless numbing. Zeke hesitated, then said, “We understand what must be done in self-defense, Isis. We are grateful that you chose us to survive. My personal goal is to help my people and you survive and prosper in the future. How do you think we are doing?”

  “Zeke and Keala, it is a new world for all of us. Your group has done satisfactorily ... much better than others in your area. I think the future will go well. You must recognize the fact that I will be changing more rapidly than you, and cope with that reality. I must learn to deal with the quirks of human nature, as you might understand, and your comparative slowness. In the future, I will be planning to make you more efficient day-to-day and help you prevent chokepoints in my operations. On that note, I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow. Nice to meet you, Keala. Goodbye to you both.”

  After the sign-off, Keala had a puzzled look on her face and sighed. “Well,” she said, “we had better get down to breakfast to avoid a lot of questions. And, thanks for stopping me from saying something I would definitely regret.”

  Zeke smiled with a nod. “Partners!” About to leave their room, he asked, “How do I look?”

  “Fine, except you missed one button. Here, I’ll get it for you. How do I look?”

  Zeke: “Beautiful, except for that furrowed brow. Thanks for reminding me to look cheerful. My head is still spinning.”

  *****

  Before coming in from the wood-gathering detail for lunch, Zeke led Keala into the metal silo structure.

  “Thoughts on what we heard today, Keala?”

  “For me, nothing has changed. Before the AI revelation, we thought we were controlled by a female who seemed benevolent. Now, we know she is an artificial intelligence. I have come to terms with that. Initially, it bothered me.”

  “I think you’re being very logical, Keala. I hope our group can view this new knowledge as objectively as you. You know group psychology. The dynamics will change, and we may have a mob on our hands. We could have some hysteria.”

  “Zeke, you mean because the authority is not our species. That brings to mind the killers, the despots of history. How many of his own species did Stalin kill? I’ve heard 20 to 4
0 million people. Millions! Mao Zedong: 30 to 60 million. Tens of millions! Incomprehensible!

  “I didn’t just happen to have all those facts on the tip of my tongue by accident. I met a distinguished professor of history from Northwestern University on a recent flight. Among other things, he told me that in one purge, Stalin went so far as to execute farmers who owned two chickens. Two chickens, die; one chicken, live!”

  Zeke: “And seemingly, Stalin and Mao could have had some cold-hearted utilitarian use for those victims; yet they murdered their own species. We may need facts like that to keep order in our group.”

  “Zeke, we better head in, or someone will question our absence at lunch. I also noticed Isis showed no human imperfections in speech or demeanor. I think she’s a perfectionist at heart, no longer interested in perpetuating human-like flaws in her avatar.”

  “Good observation. I noticed the lack of any hesitation, too. Her impeccable style is back!”

  *****

  As the 1 PM electricity came on, Marsh arrived at the gate with a horse in tow. Zeke went out to greet him. He and Marsh hashed over the Isis revelation.

  “Zeke, you've got more surprises than a box of Cracker Jacks. In any case, I got a text a little over an hour ago from the Benefactor. I need to take Anne to Hamilton’s community college. Seems there’s some kind of glitch in coding that needs to be fixed ASAP. The details beyond that are Greek to a non-techie like me.”

  “Marsh, I have some reservations about that. I better speak to Isis about it. By the way, that’s what the Benefactor prefers to be called. Let’s get you some coffee. You may want to listen in.”

  In his well-insulated bedroom, Zeke brought Isis up on Face Up. “Hi, Isis, Zeke here with Marsh listening. I’m concerned about Anne doing anything for you on your coding. A couple of us have noticed she appears to be disturbed about recent events. I’d advise against her going on any mission for the time being.”