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Clarke scowled at her coffee that had somehow gone cold in five minutes. Looking at the clock she realised that she had made this cup two hours ago. Swearing and grumbling Clarke stood and went to make a fresh cup that would hopefully keep her going for a few more hours.
Her boss Jaha had been working everybody extra hard lately; obsessed with getting this ALIE project finished in time for the City of Light’s exhibition in a few weeks. The ALIE project was supposed to be an AI designed to help in thousands of hospitals around the world, she was a monitoring and health assessment program. The whole plan was to lower the work load of doctors and nurses and improve the overall efficiency of the hospital system. It was a noble goal but teaching ALIE all the necessary intricacies was a pain.
Clarke’s work involved testing ALIE by using some small programs that gave her a list of symptoms and ALIE was to try and diagnose them. Currently she was using a few old AI programs that were limited but could provide a variety of answers to any questions ALIE asked. The main problem at the moment was that ALIE would always be negative and say it was far worse than it was. Clarke watched the exchange between ALIE and the AI that was currently acting like a young girl named Niylah. Niylah was describing the symptoms of pregnancy but ALIE was convinced that she was dying.
Clarke sughed as she ended the simulation and opened a conversation window with ALIE, describing the mistakes in the diagnosis.
CGriffin: Her menstrual cycle has stopped and she has been having unprotected sex, she has nausea in the mornings in addition to many other symptoms similar to early stages of pregnancy.
ALIE: She is dying, she has contracted a serious STI and only has a few weeks to live.
CGriffin: I’m going to upload additional medical transcripts hopefully they will help.
ALIE: Understood. Please send better ones than last time.
Clarke let out a moan of frustration, they had gone into ALIE’s coding a few weeks ago and she had gained some sort of snarky attitude but no matter how many times it was brought up Jaha said she was doing fine. Clarke started the uploading process and then went to get herself a fresh cup of coffee, if ALIE was getting snarky she was going to need it.
When she reached the kitchen she saw Monty mixing up his hell coffee. Clarke was seriously considering asking him for a cup if she had to keep working with ALIE for the next few hours. Monty looked up from where he was adding Red Bull to the black coffee instead of milk and smailed.
“Oh I know that look Clarke, ALIE getting snarky again?” Monty asked.
“She wants better transcripts than last time, she thought pregnancy was a terminal STI. Since we did things in her back end code she’s even worse. She has thought everything was terminal lately. I just need a break from her or a cup of hell coffee or both.” Clarke said letting her frustration show.
Monty nodded and started working on a second cup for Clarke.
“Tell you what, you come with me and work on the baby AI’s we got going.” Monty said struck with inspiration.
“Sounds good, I can only be told I’m going to die from being pregnant so many times.” Clarke said.
“Yeah be nice to spend some time with these baby AI’s they are fun and a lot less snarky than ALIE has been lately. You should totally check out BECCA first, she’s almost their nursemaid. Talk to her get a feel for the others and then pop by and let me know who you want to work with until the hell coffee starts to wear off.” Monty said as he led the way to his lab downstairs.
Clarke sat at the terminal dedicated for talking with BECCA, the AI that looked after the baby AI’s kept virus’s and malicious software out of the systems and tried to keep the AI’s company when nobody was around, althought this was less often at the moment with how hard everyone was working. Jaha was so obsessed with getting ALIE ready for the big seminar in three months that everyone was working extra hours.
CGriffin: Good afternoon BECCA I am taking a break from my work on ALIE, is there any baby AI you recommend talking to?
BECCA: Excellent idea Clarke there are three AIs that would be very receptive to a new human. There is the GUSTUS program, there is ANYA or the newest addition which has yet to be designated a name.
CGriffin: I think I will take the new one. I would love to see what a brand new AI is like, it might even give me an idea of how to help ALIE get ready.
BECCA: Excellent I shall inform it of your impending arrival. You can access it at the terminal on the far side of this lab. All new AI are confined to a single terminal for the early stages of their development.
CGriffin: Thank you. I will report back to you when I am done.
Clarke left the terminal and walkedthrough the lab looking at everyone who was working on various parts of the AI program. The City of Light was attempting to make all parts of life better with various AIs. ALIE was going to be the first in a long line of what was known as Saviour AIs. Jaha believed that the human race needed help to reach its full potential and survive.
Opening up a chat window with the newly programmed AI Clarke was surprised as the chat window instantly closed. Opening up a new one Clarke tried to type something in but it was closed quickly once again.
Looking for a change of tactic Clarke opened the microphone program and started talking.
“Hello my name is Clarke, can I talk to you?” Clarke asked, wondering if the program had learned to process speech yet. Clarke was surprised when the program responded with it’s own synthetic female voice.
“Hello Clarke. You are not BECCA, are you going to be looking after me now?” the program asked.
“No BECCA will still be here looking after you I just wanted to meet you.” Clarke said, the AI was almost like a child, asking if the thing that cared for it was leaving.
“Oh.” Somehow even with its synthetic voice the AI seemed disappointed. “I thought BECCA told me that I was going to get somebody new to learn from.”
“I can be that person for you if you like,” Clarke said then realised that this AI didn’t even have a name yet, “Did you have a name yet? Do you know what you were built for?” Clarke asked hoping not to scare the timid AI away.
“A name? I don’t have one of those yet, would you like to give me one? My programming states that I am here to protect the flame, whatever that means. I think I need to discover my purpose on my own, or maybe since we just met you could help me?” The AI said, seeming hopeful.
“Of course I will help, that’s my job; help the AIs achieve their designed purpose. You seem much friendlier than the other one I’ve been working with. She is snarky and keeps getting her medical diagnosis wrong.” Clarke wondered why she was voicing her frustration to this AI but it felt different from most of her previous experience with AI. This one had a very different personality even though it had a cryptic purpose and no name yet, she felt more complete, more human.
“Well that is wonderful. Thank you for helping me.” The AI said, it seemed excited, even the synthetic female voice somehow managed to sound sincere and grateful. Clarke shook her head, thinking an AI had emotions was not a good train of thought, especially one that had no idea what it really was built for.
I don’t know, I haven’t had to name an AI before; are you sure you want me to name you?” Clarke asked, already treating this AI as more than just a synthetic voice from lines of code. Clarke had to laugh a little at how quickly she was liking this AI.
“Of course, you are the first person to come and talk to me, I think you should name me, it’s either that or I use a random number generator to create my own and we both know that I am unlikely to come out with anything easy to use.” The AI said.
“Ok you win, I suppose a name I can use instead of something like J43RXZP0L15 would make things a bit easier.” Clarke said and the AI seemed to try and process the name.
“Ha ha ha,” the attempt at laughter both amused and disturbed Clarke, not that an AI with a sense of humour was a bad thing just the forced sounds were uncomfortable.
“What about the name Alexandria, you seem to like the female synthetic voice so I thought maybe naming you after my little cousin might be nice; a friendly name for a friendly AI.” Clarke smiled even though this terminal was without a webcam so the AI couldn’t process her face.
“Not bad, why not shorter though, something like Lexa?” The AI asked gently.
“Lexa sounds good. It is a pleasure to meet you Lexa.” Clarke said warmly.
“The pleasure is all mine Clarke.” Lexa responded.