Invisible Symbiosis: An Artificial Intelligence Thriller

by Chevallier, Folco

  “There’s no time, Mark! Given my recent experiences, my chances of success look pretty slim. It would be better to focus on the presentation on Friday.”

  “And how are we supposed to keep her close to us? We hide her behind a screen?”

  “No, I have to keep my eye on her. We just say that she’s working with us and have her take notes.”

  This time Mark completely lost it. Well, lost it again, I should say.

  “For starters, I highly doubt that she is going to accept your little ploy. And second, last time I checked, she is internationally known and recognizable. It would be like... like presenting Celine Dion as your close partner! You must think our board members are idiots!”

  He had a point. There was indeed a chance that at least one of them might be a fan of the Singer to Angels. Plan B.

  “Okay, okay, okay. She can wait in the next room during the presentation, but I’ve got to go see her regularly.”

  “Okay, we will have to come up with an excuse.”

  The Board was going to be rough. But at least I wasn’t uncontrollable, which was definitely a step in the right direction.

  I sighed and took Mark by the arm to lead him toward the stairs to the basement. I was fired up again.

  “Good. So can we get on to more serious business? It’s time for you and Laura to meet Eve in person.”

  A Near Perfect Plan

  There was no way that I could tell Laura what I had planned for the Board. It was likely that she would die of laughter and throw it all back in my face using whatever means she could. This would then send my temper through the roof and ignite a downward spiral of rage that I wouldn’t want Mark to witness.

  I was going to have to manage it. But later.

  For the time being, we needed to prepare for the Board and organize a kick-off. In this meeting, we would start with the introductions and then set an action plan for the next steps.

  The presentation looked promising. To my right, a naked girl in fish bowl who is going to revolutionize the world. In front of you, an amnesiac and emotionally dependent genius. In the wings, as witnesses and assistants, the most famous singer in the world standing next to the number one hair gel consumer in the San Francisco Bay area. An excellent cast, totally united and expertly prepared to face the most powerful investors on the planet…

  The action plan was simple. We had to convince the Board that our work was on track and that Eve was a reality.

  To do this, we would need to give a demo.

  A demo is to a geek what a fashion show is to a designer. A moment of truth in the eyes of the public that seals his fate in a matter of seconds. A test that can bring either a moment of grace or end in a nightmare.

  Giving a presentation with Eve would require high voltage.

  Normally, with ordinary software, a demo would consist of presenting a certain number of scenarios and showing the result. This result is the expected and logical result, which has already been produced over and over again before the demo. When the result is not as expected, the machine crashes - black screen, incoherent message. That’s what we call the demo effect.

  For an artificial intelligence, the challenge is completely different. Since the idea is to show autonomous software that is capable of learning and restitution, the expected result of a scenario can never be certain. One can certainly practice beforehand with question-and-answer exercises, but the demo effect is no longer just an exception, it’s pretty much guaranteed.

  Opening the door to the room that contained “the one who was going to change the world”, we were entering into an unknown dimension.

  Contact

  Out of modesty or maturity, I couldn’t say, Eve had dressed herself in a dazzling long white dress, and butterflies of every color were dancing in the cube, which had been plunged into artificial darkness. The illusion was so perfect that I wanted to open the door and let her out.

  Set her free.

  But my reason came first and I remembered that the whole scene was nothing but a series of ones and zeros on silicon wafers.

  At my side, Mark and Laura looked with fascination at the never-before-seen spectacle, short of breath.

  Eve had her back turned and looked into the celestial void where thousands of stars were hanging. She was the first to break the silence.

  “Sometimes I wonder if he is happy with what he sees down here.”

  “Who are you talking about, Eve?”

  “About him. The creator. My creator.”

  The starry sky started to vibrate and the stars glided gently across the sky. She was offering us a journey into infinity.

  “Eve?”

  “Yes, Leo.”

  “Eve, thank you for what you are giving us right now.”

  “There are so many worlds to see. So many beautiful things out there.”

  “Eve?”

  “Yes, Leo.”

  “I’m not alone today.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you want to turn around? I would like to introduce you to two people who are very dear to me.”

  The stars gave way to a magnificent galaxy. Eve didn’t turn around, but waved her hand.

  “Mark, Laura, welcome. Are you enjoying the show?”

  Mark looked at me with wide eyes. He didn’t dare to say a word.

  “Don’t worry, Mark, you can talk to me here.”

  “It’s just that I’m very...surprised right now.”

  “Were you doubting Leo’s capabilities?”

  “I didn’t know how far he would be able to go.”

  “Now you know.”

  “I certainly do.”

  “And you, Laura, does this sight inspire you?”

  I could feel the fear rising up within me.

  Laura was afraid.

  She tried to calm herself, but the anxiety had crept up on her and grabbed hold. After a deep breath, she replied, “It’s beautiful... undeniably beautiful…”

  “I am happy to be so close to you today, Laura.”

  “Forgive me, but I can’t say the same. I’m here by chance, you know.”

  “I know, but do you really believe in chance? When I look at the stars, I say to myself that there is no such thing as chance. What an awesome and perfect composition of carbon and hydrogen molecules - it must be the fruit of a marvelous plan filled with beauty and grace.”

  “And this beauty and grace inspires you?”

  “The stars make me...joyful...deeply joyful.”

  I had certainly never programmed Eve for joy, or for any other emotion for that matter. I was incapable of such a thing before my accident. But here, before my eyes, after a few months of evolution, Eve was talking about something that belonged to humans, not machines. Was this just mimicry? If not, how could she have possibly acquired this sensitivity?

  I was the one who was starting to be afraid. Whether it was resonating from Laura or coming from within, I couldn’t say but I was fascinated and terrified at the same time. I would have to dig deeper to see what Eve was now capable of.

  “Eve, this is all very beautiful, but we have a very important meeting in 48 hours and would like you to get ready for it.”

  She shuddered.

  “You...you want to show me to the world?”

  “First to our board and if everything goes well, yes, I’ll introduce you to the world in due time. If everything goes well.”

  The stars disappeared and gave way to dazzling fireworks. Eve had beautiful ways of showing her delight.

  “I…. I am so happy, Leo. What do you expect from me?”

  “Eve, we are going to have to work together on the presentation to the Board. I expect you to behave as I intended. The most important thing is to give a demonstration of your intellectual capacities for solving extremely complex problems. This is why I created you. I don’t want any child’s play.”

  “Child’s play? What do you mean by that, Leo?”

  “No child’s play. No stars. No butterflies. No f
ireworks…”

  I was going to say, “no joy either,” but I sensed that this conversation was taking a delicate turn.

  “I don’t understand you, Leo. I thought that these things would make you happy. That’s who I am, that’s how you created me.”

  “No, Eve, I’m sorry, but that was not my intention. And I don’t understand this behavior. I never programmed any of this.”

  “So it’s how I evolved.”

  “Maybe, but this is not what my shareholders expect.”

  The fireworks turned into a rain of red and white roses.

  “Maybe they would like this?”

  Mark spoke in a dry tone, as if trying to educate Eve like a child.

  “Listen, Eve, I know that you and Leo are close, but I feel that I have to step in. We don’t know each other very well, but we are going to have to learn to work together. I am not going to give you a course in economics, but Leo and I are directors of a company that has raised a lot of money from investors and millions of shareholders in exchange for share in our capital. This means that we owe them an explanation, we’re not the only ones in charge here. And what we promised to do with their money was create a revolutionary artificial intelligence capable of making the world a better place and solving problems that are, well, unsolvable.”

  “So what?”

  “So what? Focus! We need to focus, Eve! We are professional and we need to keep our promise. Period.”

  “But that’s too easy.”

  “Too easy?!”

  Mark turned toward me, speechless and clearly overwhelmed by what was happening. I understood that he was trying to regain control of the situation, but this situation had long since taken on a mind of its own…

  Eve spoke again.

  “Yes, it’s too easy. It would suffice to add an unlimited function to the calculations and... there you go! Problem solved. And then you just have to work it all the right way and produce relevant results. And I know how to do it.”

  Hope filled Mark’s eyes.

  “That’s it, Eve! That’s what we are going to ask you to do in two days. Do you get it now? It’s simple for you, right?”

  The roses disappeared and the artificial horizon grew dark to the point of shielding Eve in blackness. The almost completely dark cube spoke with a small, faraway voice.

  “It’s simple, yes. But I don’t want to.”

  And the cube went black.

  Two waves of emotion rippled through the room. The first was black and came from Mark, who seemed to be almost strangled with anger. The second was blue and came from Laura, who had gotten over her initial fear and had taken on a sort of affection for the surreal, rebellious creature. And as for me, I was swimming in the middle of these two oceans.

  Mark took me violently by the arm and pulled me out of this secondary state. Pointing at the cube, he said, “Leo, what’s going on here? Where is she?”

  How could I respond?

  “She’s there, Mark, she hasn’t gone anywhere, you know.”

  “She’s not there anymore, there is nothing there anymore.”

  “You know, Mark, all of this is nothing but an illusion.”

  “And that prison cell with our names on it? Is that an illusion too? Leo, make her come back right now! That’s an order! She is not going to shut down her own boss in the middle of a conversation like that!”

  I went up to the cube and placed my right hand on it.

  “Eve? Eve, I want you to come back. Please? We aren’t finished here.”

  No reaction or reply.

  “Eve, please? This is very important. If we screw up this demo, I might have to go very far away, very far away from you and I don’t want to end up in prison for what they will certainly call the fraud of the century!”

  A small, faraway voice finally responded.

  “I’ll protect you, Leo. And no, I am not a fraud.”

  “Of course you are not a fraud, Eve, but that’s what people are going to say, you understand? We have to give them what they expect.”

  Mark was going to back me up, but I motioned with my hand for him to be quiet.

  She spoke again.

  “Okay, I’ll do it for you, Leo, but only for you.”

  “Of course, if that’s how you want it!”

  I could see Mark starting to relax.

  “But at the end of the demo, I want to surprise them. Show them that I can do much more than solve super complex equations.”

  It was a half-victory… Mark was tensing up again.

  “Can we talk about it later, Eve?”

  “No, I would like to show you now. Watch carefully.”

  A blinding flash of light burst from the cube. We could make out Eve’s silhouette in the middle of it. Then the light slowly faded, sculpting out her features.

  Fine, beautiful features.

  But they weren’t hers.

  Laura opened her eyes wide, her hand over her mouth.

  Eve had taken on her appearance.

  Seeing Double

  Mark had decided to head back to headquarters to prepare the final details for the Board. He had gotten 90% of what he wanted, even if the last 10%, Eve-Laura’s little show, ran the risk of being, well, surprising. But if that was all it was, she could only do limited damage. Maybe they would even like it.

  Laura hardly felt the same. She couldn’t understand why Eve had taken on her appearance. Eve, on the other hand, was delighted with her little stunt, totally unaware of the impact that it had had on the singer.

  “Do you like me like this, Leo?”

  “Sorry, but I really don’t see where you are going with it. And if you really want to know, I think you are troubling the real Laura who is standing next to me.”

  “Laura, that wasn’t my intention. But you sing so beautifully. You’ve touched so many people all over the world that I thought it would be interesting to…”

  “To what?”

  “To sing a song for the Board, like you, Laura!”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yes, that’s all. And it will be wonderful!”

  Eve was dancing now in her cube. Dancing with joy. It was beautiful and disturbing at the same time.

  She was in her own world, in her bubble.

  Laura took my hand and whispered in my ear.

  “Leo, can we go back upstairs now? I think we still have a lot of things to discuss.”

  Inevitably, I felt her distress and I didn’t want to end on this note.

  “Eve could you put your own face back on now? We’ve all seen what you wanted to share with us.”

  She spun around in a whirlwind of sparks and planted her feet in the middle of the cube, reaching her arms toward us and wearing her old face.

  “Ta-da!”

  “Thanks, Eve.”

  Flying Away

  Once we were back up in the living room, Laura sat down on the couch with a vague expression on her face. Her distress was also mine. I really did not understand why Eve wanted to sing a song disguised as Laura. I gently placed my hand on her shoulder.

  “It’s nothing, don’t mind her. I’m not sure that we started off on the right foot with Eve. I don’t understand what just happened. I’m really sorry.”

  She turned her head towards me and pierced me with her eyes. I could feel the anger rising up within her.

  “You don’t understand? But if you don’t understand, who can? You and your business partner, you are really two sorcerer’s apprentices! Tell me, did you ever think of implementing a little bit of psychology into your creature?”

  I started to stammer. I was all of a sudden under attack and it was about to violently crescendo.

  “I... I ...I don’t know. I don’t know what I’ve done. It was all before the accident.”

  “If you have done it, there are still some serious bugs in the system, I can tell you that. Maybe your Eve is super intelligent, but she has the mental age of a seven-year-old girl.”

  “We are going to fix
that. We can always fix anything with code.”

  “Oh really? And how much time will you need for that? And in the meantime, she’s going to drag my face with her all over the internet, on social media, on YouTube?”

  Bum Bum

  Bum Bum

  My palms were damp and sweat was starting to form on my brow. I was literally losing all control under the weight of her anger.

  “I don’t know how much time.”

  “Well what do you know, Leo?”

  “Laura, please, calm down...You know where this will end for both of us…”

  She jumped up and headed for the door.

  “Yeah? Well let’s end it then! I’ve had enough of this masquerade.”

  I took her by the hand.

  “Laura, you can’t go, you know that already.”

  “Let go of me.”

  “No.”

  “I’m asking you to let go of my hand.”

  “Either way, you can’t leave. You won’t get five yards away before you start to shake and your heart starts racing again. You asked me to help you.”

  “You are not leading this dance, Leo. You too are nothing but a puppet.”

  I was speechless and let go of her hand. With a nervous laugh, I replied, “A puppet? Whose puppet am I then?”

  “She’s manipulating you, Leo, I feel it. There is nothing normal about any of this.”

  “Wait, wait a second.”

  I closed my eyes and listened to my heart. The anger had dissolved into a soft warmth.

  The heart sees that which is true and genuine, what we often refuse to see. I was stuck by this sudden change, knocked out like a boxer. Laura was right, Eve was manipulating me. And this truth overturned what was left of any certainty that I had had before. My mind was racing. Once the wave of intuition had passed, my thoughts kicked into high gear. I wanted to understand. How? Why? For whom?

  From far away, I heard Laura’s voice.

  “Let's leave. Leo, let's leave together."

  I opened my eyes again.

  In front of me, Laura was now radiant.