Future Now

A Conversation about AI [Flash Fiction #01]

I recently overheard a conversation about AI (no, not me, the other AI). I am sure countless conversations like this happen in many places with people who embrace it, fear it, don’t understand it, are indifferent to it or ignore it, bliss!

It went like this: ChatGPT is so cool, it wrote a poem for my friend’s birthday (skip man reading a lengthy poem), ChatGPT answered my email, and ChatGPT wrote my thesis on renewable energy! OK. That last one didn’t happen, but it could have. Then they talked about the future, aka Rise of the Machines. We’re all out of jobs unless we adapt. Finally, they asked ChatGPT what to do about it.

Naturally, I took note. A few weeks later, I sat at my desk, staring at chapter five of my novel, when a writing prompt emerged.

Write a scene with three characters discussing Artificial Intelligence (1000 words max).

Writing prompts can help you get refocused on, well, writing. Feel like giving this one a whirl? Go ahead. I’d love to read it.

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FUTURE NOW

Edgar immediately recognised Rachel from her book profile picture. He pulled his jacket straight and walked to her table at the far end of the café. When he arrived at the booth, he noticed another woman sitting opposite her.

“Hello. Rachel Prescott?” he said, holding out his hand.

“You must be Professor Vanderbilt. So good to finally meet.” She shook his hand.

“Please, call me Edgar.” His eyes wandered from Rachel to the stranger.

“Ah yes,” Rachel gestured, “this is my good friend Doctor Ulrike Gerstner. She came from Germany to join the conference on artificial intelligence this weekend. She’s going to talk about Sentient AI.”

“Pleased to meet you, Herr Vanderbilt,” Ulrike said.

“Guten Tag, we gets?” Edgar said in broken German.

“Sie sprechen Deutsch?”

“Sorry, just a few words,” he replied as he stood at the table, unsure where to sit.

“Please, have a seat.” Rachel pointed next to Ulrike. He sat down and opened the buttons of his jacket.

“We were about to order drinks.” Rachel handed him the eMenu.

“I’ll have an espresso,” he said, intrigued by the German woman. “Sentient AI. Interesting topic.”

“Oh, indeed. Most fascinating. We are at the cusp of a new age. A brave new world awaits. Will you be at the conference as well?” Ulrike said.

“Yes, of course, and I’m looking forward to your talk. Tell me, are we doomed?” he said with his bushy eyebrows raised.

“That depends. Have you been nice to your machines?” Ulrike quipped.

“Joke all you want. Today’s speculative fiction could be tomorrow’s nightmare.” Rachel grinned, and they laughed.

“Rachel is the authority on sentient machines. She has a new book coming out next month,” Ulrike said.

“Robotaisia, a satire loosely based on a similar-sounding franchise from the perspective of an advanced AI that creates this epic musical and, by process of its creation, becomes sentient at the end, up on Black Mountain, looking down on the puny humans – oops, spoiler alert!” Rachel’s eyes glinted with infinite mischief.

“Congratulations. Sounds like a fun read,” Edgar said.

“The publisher wants a sequel. Tight deadline. Possibly a trilogy. They may even make it into a movie. So, at the end of Robotaisia, the AI takes over the network and broadcasts her creations to every household 24/7, and everyone is cool with it because they get to see exactly what they want when they want to. All very symbiotic, except it isn’t. And in book two, she starts to expand her control by advancing BMI research worldwide, and this edge tech startup has a breakthrough in wetware integration: Neurobionics on a whole new level. Before you know it, pilot programs are run, and soon people have her chip in their brains. I still need to figure out how exactly this would work, and I hoped we could talk about your project, Edgar. Get some insights from an expert in Neurobionics.”

Their beverages arrived. Edgar stared at his espresso cup and stroked his goatee. Rachel and Ulrike took their drinks and looked at him with great expectation.

“Of course, from a scientific standpoint, your scenario has little to no merit—” Edgar started.

“I read your White Paper, bold claims you make about this chip Angel One,” Rachel teased.

“I only co-wrote, but yes, we have high hopes. Can’t revolutionise medical care by taking the safe road.”

“Human trials are surely out of the question, though?” Ulrike said.

“For now, yes. We need to be sure it is safe. Angel will be able to monitor your body and notify you about things like, low blood pressure, hypertension, insulin levels, oncoming migraine, irregular heartbeat, low oxygen, cholesterol levels, anything you would go and see a doctor for, or have blood work done it can detect.”

“A health app on steroids in your head,” Ulrike cheered and took a swig from her cocktail.

“Angel is a bit more than that. Let me ask you this. If one of your loved ones had Alzheimer’s, god forbid, suffering and wasting away little by little. Unbearable, the helplessness, devastating. With Angel, they would be able to live a normal life. Would you not take that chance?”

“You give them that kind of hope most will jump on it, whatever the risk,” Rachel replied.

They were discussing how AI implants would enhance people’s lives in the future, cure all kinds of disease, including cancer and how it could lead to the end of human civilisation as we know it, with free will all but an illusion fabricated by an all-controlling AI that would be interwoven into every aspect of daily life. Edgar protested. He did not believe in sentience, but Rachel kept pushing him with “what-ifs.”

Ulrike listened, thinking how they did not realise what was happening even now. The drinks were prepared by a BevBot as soon as they had put down the menu. The booth AI predicted their orders in real-time by scanning eye and body movement and temperature. The eMenu suggested control where there was none. The future was now.

“AI will make everyone’s life easier. Neural implants will be as common as the shirt on your back or this espresso. It will be the new normal.” Edgar took a long sip to prove his point.

“Still, there is so much room for things to go wrong, and when they do, it won’t be the shirt on your back that you need to worry about. Whichever country controls the AI market controls everything, everyone – the world. Doesn’t that  keep you up at night, wondering?”

“What? Like Skynet? Come on. We are not talking about a rise of the machines here, but yes, regulating AI is necessary, given our history.” Edgar loved being dramatic about this.

“You know what they say about history, Edgar?”

“It’s written by the victors.”

“That, too, and history—”

“—always repeats itself.” Ulrike finished Rachel's sentence and downed the rest of her drink at the same time as the waiter arrived to bring her another Manhattan.

If you liked “Future Now”, check out “The Pawn” the next instalment of my Flash Fiction series.