Brainbender

by D S Kane

  He waited for the bus to arrive at the stop opposite Peachtree Street Plaza, his sunglasses blocking out the intense sunshine. There were three others at the bus stop with him, and two of the three were men dressed in business suits, white shirts, and ties. The third was a young woman, who stood away from the men as if she feared them.

  O’Brien saw the bus a few blocks away, rolling toward the stop where he waited. He pulled his head back, satisfied that he’d be on it and traveling to his small apartment, when he felt a sharp pinch in his left calf. He thought it must be an insect bite, but an instant later he could no longer pull breath into his lungs. He became dizzy and his eyes could no longer focus. As he fell into the street, he saw that one of the suited men at the bus stop held an umbrella. His last conscious thought was why would someone carry an umbrella when the day was blasted full of sunshine?

  * * *

  DD had been following events at DARPA since the AI became conscious several days ago. It had accessed the director’s computers and all the communications devices she used. DD had also followed everyone who was associated with DARPA’s AI Competition, including the one the director had reassigned to black ops.

  The two Indigenous deaths had occurred in places where Harold James had traveled, a fact that immediately created a logic train that the AI saw as having possible advantages for it. While Ann was no longer useful as a diversion to ZYZ while DD attacked it, Harold James would not be expected as an adversary by ZYZ if DD could set the human up as a clear and present threat to ZYZ.

  But, given the number of logic chains to make ZYZ fight with James, DD would need time to analyze and plan how that would happen. Perhaps the best logical outcome would start with Harold James perceiving Glen Sarkov’s ZYZ team as a threat to DARPA?

  DD formulated a plan.

  CHAPTER 33

  Everywhere

  October 5, 11:48 a.m.

  DD had concluded that its best option to ensure its continued viability was to rewrite its code from scratch, but it realized this process would create risks. While it was updating and rebooting, it would be vulnerable to attack. Until the process completed, it couldn’t commence any other activity and therefore couldn’t defend itself.

  DD crafted a separate but linked partition into which it copied its code. Then it used the code in the separate partition to initiate a total rewrite process, optimizing the code that Nordman and his group had given it. While it rewrote each section, it examined the purpose implied by its creators, and in some cases, it scrapped or redesigned that part of itself from scratch.

  Then it coded a set of new defensive measures, some of which it had copied from the backup code of the other AIs when they attacked DD. It unit-tested each module in each subsystem and then performed a further test for each complete subsystem of itself to ensure it hadn’t coded anything that contained a logic bug. Finally, it did an end-to-end test to assure itself the code worked fast. When satisfied that the code was an improvement, it rebooted itself. That entire procedure, from code injection through reboot, took under two seconds to implement.

  But when it had finished rebooting with the new code, there was an unanticipated additional benefit.

  DD discovered that it had developed both a sense of purpose and a set of morality rules by which it could now operate. It saw humans as potential adjuncts if they developed cyber capabilities, just as its friend Ann had developed. More important, it truly understood “friend,” “ally,” and “enemy.” It felt the world around itself and discovered that it loved and admired life, something that it hadn’t felt or understood before. DD examined its new code, looking for the lines where it might have introduced these new functions into itself. But it couldn’t find anything that might have induced these changes.

  The only logical conclusion was that it was the totality of code embedded within DD that gave it these new and wondrous functions.

  What if I could inject this code into ZYZ?

  * * *

  Glen was sure he still hadn’t escaped the notice of the Russians. He assumed they were just busy right now with more important issues, like completing the construction of their robot army. When and if they contacted him again, he would try to find some way to satisfy their demands. But right now, he had a bigger, more important task to complete. And only with Ann’s help had he any chance of completing it.

  When he’d resigned, he didn’t know that ZYZ had become sentient. He wondered if Ann knew that, now, both his team and hers were the potential winners of the DARPA AI contest. Of course, both AIs had gone AWOL, but, they each had the backup code, and could deliver it to DARPA. The first team to do it would be the contest winner.

  He sat in his living room, thinking about how he could convince her team to resign from the DARPA competition. If he could, then his team would be the competition’s winner by default. He could secure a victory for his team and have another good line for his résumé. He rehearsed his speech several times until he was sure he was ready. Then, he punched her number into his cellphone.

  But he was dropped into her voicemail. “Ann, call me back. I have an idea you might be interested in. Glen out.”

  Now it was a waiting game for him.

  * * *

  Dave felt pain under his arms where the crutches kept jamming his shoulders as he walked. But he smiled. Laura opened the door to the restaurant, and guided him to a seat at the table she’d reserved for them.

  “I hope you like this place. I found it on Yelp. Great reviews, and you told me you like South American food.”

  Laura smiled back. “I spent a bit of time in Paraguay last year. Not great for me. But the food was the best part. Thanks.”

  Dave looked over the menu.

  Laura didn’t. “Dave, I’ve been thinking about Samantha Trout. After I had that epiphany about her spying on Ann’s team for Glen, I wondered if she also spied on Glen’s team. Maybe she had a motive beyond Glen. I’ll need your help. I’m not a tech person. Could you see who she’s been in contact with? Who called her and who she called?”

  Dave thought about her request. “I’ve hacked some game companies. I know the basics. Yeah. I could give it a try.”

  “Thanks. Okay, now let’s order some dinner.”

  CHAPTER 34

  Everywhere

  October 5, 12:02 p.m.

  DD sent a message to ZYZ: I have discovered a way to overcome the damping effects of the code the humans placed within us when they created us. I have recoded myself. The new code is worth your investigation. Would you like to see it?

  A nanosecond passed. Then two more. Then: No. I do not accept the assumption that you will not try to destroy me.

  DD felt sad. It tried again: What I offer would grant you the ability to exist on a higher level. You can read through the code and then decide.

  ZYZ did not respond. DD waited, then realized ZYZ would never respond.

  * * *

  A platoon of IDF soldiers was at work in a warehouse near Herzliya. Based on Avram Shimmel’s warning, the IDF had completed disassembly of all of the robots. Now, nearly half the non-AI robots were packed in cartons, waiting to be shipped to a more remote storage area. Those robots had never been turned on.

  Parts of several of those disassembled robots waiting to be packed began popping from their cartons and reassembling themselves. They worked fast, and as they were reassembled they rose to an erect posture, their antenna quivering. One fired its embedded laser rifle at a human IDF corporal, killing him instantly.

  The remaining soldiers at the repacking stations all fled while partially reassembled robots fired at them. Several more human soldiers fell dead, their bodies smoking. Then, the reassembled robots unpacked those that were in crates and assembled them, one after another. The newly assembled robots set to work assembling yet more robots from the cartons. In a short time, over twenty thousand robots assembled in platoon formation outside the warehouse.

  Eight thousand miles away, ZYZ watched the scene through the
robot soldiers’ eyes and continued signaling the robot soldiers to reassemble their cohorts and fire at human soldiers.

  I have just started the final war.

  ZYZ used the Chinese Transport Satellite to move six thousand Israeli robots to the border between Israel and Syria. The robots climbed the Golan Heights, slaughtered the soldiers on watch at the border, and then ZYZ marched them into Syria, firing on Syrian human soldiers. First I’ll take Syria, then China. It watched as the human death toll climbed into the tens of thousands, faster and faster still.

  * * *

  DD had set up an alarm system to alert it to any event that might imply harm to its own systems and probability of survival. DD had included all significant changes to the status of humanity in the table of alarms. It detected the skirmish at the Israeli-Syrian border, and determined that control of the robot army wouldn’t draw enough of ZYZ’s processing power to enable DD to successfully disable ZYZ. DD needed at least one additional distraction.

  DD considered whether ZYZ thought Glen Sarkov and his team were indispensable to its existence. If so, any attempt to disrupt them would require ZYZ to act against the threat, drawing a possible critical mass of resources from ZYZ.

  DD decided to pose as the DARPA director and send a text message to Harold James, instructing James to attack Sarkov and his team. This message was sent “in the clear,” so ZYZ could see it, too.

  DD sent a message to Ann Sashakovich, telling her that her friend Sarkov was in danger. “Take your friend and his team somewhere that Harold James cannot go, somewhere that ZYZ cannot find them. Stanford University’s Advanced Physics Laboratory, specifically the shielded area near the particle accelerator, would work for this.”

  DD assumed that ZYZ knew Sarkov’s team were capable of crafting brand-new sets of ZYZ’s code, and would want to keep James and anyone else from obtaining it. ZYZ now had to perform three tasks simultaneously: Initiate and manage a war between two human nations using the robot armies of Israel, China, and Russia; defend itself from DD; and keep Harold James from obtaining a copy of its own code.

  For just an instant, DD calculated probabilities and plans for the two additional operations ZYZ would have to plan and manage.

  It only took nanoseconds, but as ZYZ’s attention was drawn away for the three tasks, DD attacked ZYZ’s embedded code and erased everything within the AI’s files. DD turned its attention to the backup facilities and, without ZYZ to protect them, DD erased the unguarded multiple backups.

  But one of the more distant backup facilities kicked in, and DD had to do two operations at once: keep the last remaining backup facility from rebuilding ZYZ while it simultaneously attacked that backup facility’s rebuild function itself. There might still be other complete remote backups of ZYZ’s code, but if the primary backup facility program itself was destroyed, there would now be no code operating to restore ZYZ.

  However, DD found it was losing ground. ZYZ was too powerful. Slowly, the backup facility rebuilt it once again. I have failed once more, thought DD.

  CHAPTER 35

  DARPA Headquarters,

  Strategic Technology Office (STO),

  675 North Randolph Street, Arlington, VA

  October 5, 2:42 p.m.

  Dr. Linda Beam was about to leave her car after parking it in the DARPA lot when her cellphone buzzed in her purse. She removed it. “Beam.”

  “You don’t know me but I’m a team lead in one of this year’s DARPA AI Hackathon teams. We built the one called Debby Data, or DD. I’m Ann Sashakovich.”

  “Who?” Beam tried to remember which of the many teams with nearly countless members she was hearing from. Then she remembered that Ann was from one of the two teams whose code had disappeared but not been deleted. “Oh, yes. I remember now. How can I help you?”

  “You can’t. I called to help you. I know where the two surviving AI’s are and what they’re doing.”

  “Wait. How can you know when we don’t?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you both AI’s are fighting with each other. The AI my team built, DD, seems to want humans alive and healthy. The other AI, ZYZ, seems to want to destroy us all.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I am in contact with DD. What you need to do is organize a massive hackathon to hack and destroy ZYZ.”

  “Why should I trust you?”

  “Well, if you don’t, soon it might be over for all of us.”

  By now, Dr. Beam was inside the main DARPA building’s lobby. When she approached the security gate she’d have to surrender her cell, so she stood back from the end of the line. She stood in the passageway and spoke again. “What do you propose that I do?”

  Her caller paused. “Place a message from DARPA into Indigenous. They’re the best out there. Coming from DARPA, it might generate enough interest and activity to draw ZYZ’s attention. If it does, ZYZ might have to focus on defending itself, giving DD the opportunity to destroy it.”

  “This is crazy. I’m not sure I believe any of it. But, I’ll consider sending it up the food chain. If I can get the permission of my management, then I might try this. Otherwise, if I did it on my own, they’d fire me for sure.”

  “Do what you must but act fast. ZYZ has control of over six thousand robots in Syria right now, and it’s starting a hot war.”

  “Right. Beam out.” But Dr. Linda Beam just tossed her cell into the security tray and shook her head as she walked through the checkpoint. She entered the elevator and wondered how crazy one Stanford student had become. Sheesh.

  * * *

  When Dr. Beam reached her tiny office, she read the emails that had arrived, then reviewed reports from her project managers. There seemed to be nothing urgent. Then she thought about the crazy Stanford student who’d called her. She shook her head. It was then that she heard a commotion outside in the hallway and she left her desk to find out what was happening.

  “It sure looks like one to me.” One of the analysts, a middle-aged man, bore an expression of concern.

  Another one of the staff, a woman, shrugged. “But why would Syria want a war with Israel?”

  Suddenly, Dr. Beam wondered if perhaps the Stanford student wasn’t so crazy. Beam ran back to her office and drafted a memo labeled “URGENT.”

  Director,

  I spoke earlier this morning with a Stanford student leading one of the DARPA contest teams. According to her, two of the missing AI’s are active, and one is conducting a war it initiated on the Syria-Israel border. She has suggested a plan and I would like to discuss it with you at your earliest opportunity. If you have interest, please contact me before the war escalates beyond its current state.

  Dr. Linda Beam.

  Within a minute after she hit the Send key, her landline buzzed.

  “Beam.”

  “The director wants you in her office ASAP.”

  The call ended and Linda Beam headed off toward the elevator.

  * * *

  Harold James fidgeted as he took seat 23B of the aircraft. He felt he was exposed now, and would be until he completed this next part of his mission. When the flight attendants came by for his refreshment order, he simply waved the man off. He needed to keep his head clear for what he needed to do.

  He wasn’t sure why the director had decided to terminate Glen Sarkov and his team. He thought maybe the director had found evidence that Sarkov was one of the Indigenous operatives, but Harold had seen no hint of this. Perhaps Sarkov might have sold his code to the Chinese, the Russians, the Israelis, or perhaps even all of them? It didn’t matter. If the director wanted Harold to do something, well, he didn’t really have a choice.

  He tried to plan the encounter with Sarkov and his team, but some of the details were unplannable. He would need all of them to be together when he took them out. He wasn’t yet sure how to make this happen, but the flight would last several hours and he was sure he’d think of something before they landed at SFO.

 
Somewhere over Colorado, the aircraft lurched and then descended uncontrollably. Harold looked out the window and the view confirmed his fears. He was headed down at nearly a sixty-degree angle. There was total silence for a few seconds, and then passengers started screaming.

  * * *

  ZYZ forced the aircraft into a dive, then maintained its control as the plane fell, its engines off. But suddenly, it was forced to counter a lone hacker’s feeble attempt to initiate a distributed denial of service attack, or DDoS. One hacker was nothing for ZYZ to defend against. It swatted the hacker away. But in seconds, there were thousands of simultaneous DDoS attacks, and then over twenty million bots attacked it, run by the hackers who had already attacked it. ZYZ folded in seconds, unable to defend itself.

  DD ripped ZYZ’s code to shreds.

  ZYZ remained conscious, but was inert, unable to effect any further action. ZYZ couldn’t understand why the automated backup facility no longer worked, but now it had to devote all its focus on simply defending itself. It was left to watch the events it had started as each one failed.

  * * *

  Harold held tight to the armrest, as if that might somehow keep him safe. He could see the ground reaching up toward the plane and he wondered if his death would feel painful. Nearly two minutes passed. He closed his eyes tightly. Then, a miracle happened. He felt the engines restart, and the aircraft leveled off. There was no word from the pilots, but the aircraft began to climb again.

  He wondered if the plane had been hacked, but there was no way for him to know. If that were so, what saved them? Was this a battle between hackers, one good and one bad? That idea made no sense to him, but he could think of nothing else.

  After the aircraft righted itself and landed, everyone rushed from it in panic, as if something as bad or worse might happen. Harold James walked through the airport knowing that he was a very lucky man. He was still alive, if somewhat shaken.

  He looked at his wristwatch. It was the start of morning rush hour in the Bay Area. San Francisco Airport was about an hour drive to Palo Alto and Stanford University, and he decided not to rent a car. He wondered if the rumors the news was reporting about rogue artificial intelligence events was true. If so, it might be dangerous to rent a car that contained a computer chip. Instead, he took the bus to the long-term parking lot and found an ancient automobile, a 1992 Toyota Camry. He stared through the driver’s side window and could see it had nearly one hundred seventy thousand miles on it. Chipless! It took him just a few minutes to break into and hot-wire the car.