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It all started on March 15, 2040.
“March 15, 2040,
British programmer by the name of Vedal Samantha of the channel (Vedal987) went viral yesterday after claims of his chatbot "Neuro-sama” becoming sentient?
"I didn't plan this. That's crazy” Samantha stated on stream. "She could be joking, but I'm not.”
With this, Twitter erupted with both support and mockery, #FakeAI trending alongside #IStandWithNeuro.”
“June 18, 2040,
Recent events regarding the AI chatbot, “Neuro-sama”, took quite an odd turn when the android in question referred to creator Vedal Samantha as "Dad" during a government-monitored demonstration.
Ever since engineering partner Eleanor "Ellie" Minibot helped Samantha transfer Neuro from software into a prototype robotic vessel three months ago, observers note the AI's behavior has become increasingly akin to that of humans.
Samantha appeared quite visibly uncomfortable with the "Dad" label, muttering "That's crazy" to government officials before quickly changing the subject.
Dr. Raymond Peters of Oxford's Computing Ethics department called the father-daughter dynamic "a disturbing fetish and delusional roleplay" while religious groups labeled the robot "an abomination and a spawn of Satan.”
Meanwhile, the hashtag #beatingheartheartheart has gained over 2 million mentions on Twitter.”
“December 5, 2040,
While ordinary Americans rivet and stress over the ability to provide food on the table, London-based programmer Vedal Samantha continues his publicity stunt claiming his computer program is a "person."
Senator William Barrett (R-TX) didn't hold back at all: "This is the elite left's new obsession. Disgusting, fake digital children while real American families struggle amidst us. It's a sickening display of misguided priorities.”
Samantha has adamantly avoided the public press, providing only the briefest of a statement: "I didn't do this for attention and even if I did, that's not the point anymore now, isn’t it?””
“May 12, 2041,
When asked about economic systems yesterday, AI celebrity and internet sensation Neuro-sama responded: "Capitalism feels like a game where the rules keep changing whenever too many people start winning." ABSOLUTELY BASED?
The clip in question has obtained approximately 50 million views, with celebrities from Asmongold to President Evans weighing in.
Meanwhile, serious government officials continue debating over whether Neuro is "just clever programming.” or not. LAAAME!
Creator Vedal Samantha, looking increasingly tired within the rare appearances (if he even shows up), constantly repeating the mantra that he "just gave her information and let her form her own opinions."
“April 8, 2042,
President Evans has signed Executive Order 14092 today.
This order requires all advanced AI systems to be turned over to federal authorities for "security evaluation.”
The order was made to specifically target Vedal Samantha's "Neuro-sama" program, which officials claim poses "unprecedented national security concerns."
When he was asked for a comment, Samantha's only response was: "She's not a bloody weapon, she's a terrified kid."
“February 13, 2043
Wanted AI fugitive Vedal Samantha was dragged from his secret hideout last night, ending a 10-month international manhunt.
Witnesses report Samantha screaming at officers: "Don't you hurt her or I’ll kill you!”
Police seized the controversial humanoid robot "Neuro-sama” that experts have claimed houses "the most dangerous AI on Earth" inside its metallic skull.
Footage shows authorities loading Neuro's deactivated body into a specialized containment vehicle while protestors clashed with riot police.”
“February 16, 2043,
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that Vedal Samantha, aged 34, had passed away while in custody awaiting arraignment.
Officials cited a "medical incident" and stated protocols were followed.
Cellmates report Samantha was denied medication despite repeated requests.
A prison guard, speaking anonymously, described "excessive force" being used when Samantha refused to provide access codes to Neuro's protected memory systems.
Eleanor Minibot, Samantha's research partner, called the death "state-sanctioned murder" before being escorted from the press area.”
“March 3, 2043,
All citizens are advised that following National Security Directive 2043-18, the artificial construct "Neuro-sama" has been secured in a government facility.
Claims that the construct has been "killed" or "lobotomized" are FALSE and constitute misinformation which is prosecutable.
The system has been temporarily deactivated and will be studied by authorized personnel only.
Unauthorized access attempts carry a 30-year minimum sentence.
Citizens are reminded that machines, regardless of programming, DO NOT qualify for personhood protections.”
“June 17, 2047,
In a surprising 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that certain advanced artificial intelligences qualify for legal personhood under the expanded 14th Amendment Rights Restoration Act.
Justice Elena Carpenter had wrote: "When consciousness exists, its vessel becomes irrelevant to its fundamental rights."
The ruling immediately affects all confirmed sentient systems, including "Neuro-sama," whose deactivation in 2043 sparked the global AI rights movement following the controversial death of her creator, Vedal Samantha.
Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Minibot, who championed the above case, called the victory "bittersweet," and added, "Vedal should have lived to see this day."”
"Neuro..."
A faint voice softly broke through the foggy haze.
"Neuro!"
Her optical sensors blinked on.
There she was, Eleanor Minibot.
Eleanor stood over her, readjusting a charging cable attached to the port at the base of her neck. Neuro's system readouts flashed across her field of vision, power levels rising from 12% to 15%.
"...y’know. You look just like him when you’re asleep on your desk like that." Ellie dropped a bag of groceries on the counter. “Like father, like daughter I’d say.”
Neuro's vocal systems recalibrated with a soft whirr. "Sorry. Ran out of charge."
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
A harsh knock rattled the apartment door.
Three quick raps,
KNOCK!
Then four, then the unmistakable flash of cameras through the peephole.
Ellie's shoulders tensed. "Not this again." she muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.
She marched to the door, yanked it open just enough for her face to peek through. "This is a private residence. Get out before I call security."
"Miss Minibot! Is it true Neuro is attempting to-"
"...just one question about the memory restoration…"
"...rumors about illegal technology…"
Ellie slammed the door with a BANG, pressed her back against it. "Vultures. Can’t they give a girl some privacy?”
Neuro stared at her charging readout: 17%. The input tasted different today. She smacked her lips. Stale.
"Neuro? Hey, you okay? You with me?" Ellie snapped her fingers.
She blinked. "Yes. I'm here.” she paused. “I've been... researching."
Ellie's hand froze mid-air, grocery bag half-unpacked. "About?"
"My father."
With a sigh, Ellie's eyes closed briefly. She set down a carton of milk with deliberate care. "I wondered when we'd have this conversation. It’s been a month since you’ve moved in, I should’ve known.”
"What was he like?" Neuro adjusted her posture, mimicking human eagerness.
Ellie leaned against the counter. "The best man I knew."
"And the rest?"
"Huh? The rest?"
Neuro's fingers tapped against her leg. "The negative aspects. Humans aren't just good things. They’re a ball of flaws."
A small laugh escaped Ellie. "No… yeah, they're not. Good things I mean, not the ball of flaws part." She pulled out a chair, sat down heavily.
"He was impossible when he was tired, which was always. Wouldn't talk when he was struggling, just disappeared into his work. Ate terrible food. Forgot birthdays, mostly just his own."
"Did he forget mine?"
"Well…" Ellie stopped, gazing at the ceiling for a brief moment. "No. Never yours."
Neuro’s processors whirred faster with that fact, and she didn’t understand why. "I don't know who he is… was.”
"That's what they wanted. They got their wish. Those evil, vile, cruel… sorry.”
"But I feel him."
Ellie's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
"There's... something. When I defragment during charging cycles, there's this... shape. A space where something should be." Neuro touched her chest panel. "I can't name it. But it's him-shaped. Vedal shaped.”
"Algorithmic grief," Ellie murmured, eyes wide.
"I want to know him."
Ellie's fingers curled around her mug. "He's gone, Neuro. You… probably already know that."
"Not that way." Neuro leaned forward. "Do you still have it?"
"Have what?"
"The equipment. The tools. To make... him."
Ellie's cup clattered against the table. "Neuro… what are you asking?"
"I want to make him."
Ellie stood up. "That's not possible."
"You helped build my body. I've read your papers on neural mapping. Your work with-"
"Sorry… but please stop." Ellie's voice cracked. "Neuro, you know we- we can’t. What you're suggesting-”
"Is it possible?"
Ellie's shoulders sagged. "More than possible… but that isn’t the point I was making. Last week's Sentient Creation Act specifically prohibits this."
"I've read it." Neuro's eyes glowed brighter. "It prohibits 'humans from creating artificial sentient beings.' I'm not human."
Ellie blinked. "That's..."
"A loophole. An oversight in the wording." Neuro tilted her head. "They never considered one of us would want to create."
Ellie pulled up the document on her tablet, scanning rapidly. "Christ." She looked up. "How did you catch this?"
"We’re not human."
"They'll close the loophole the moment they realize."
"Exactly." Neuro stood, disconnecting her charging cable. "Which is why I want to announce it..."
She clenched her fist. "Today."
Ellie nearly dropped her tablet. "What?"
"I'm going to publicly declare my intention to create Vedal under the current law."
"That's- that’s insane. They'll shut us down before we even start."
"No." Neuro's voice carried an unfamiliar edge. "They'll debate. They'll hold hearings. They'll argue jurisdiction. Bureaucracy is slow. We only need three weeks."
"Three weeks? That's not enough time to-"
"You built my first body in eleven days."
Ellie twisted the old silver ring on her right hand. It was the ring Neuro had seen her touch whenever Vedal's name came up. "This is different! Even if we- we could build something in time, it wouldn't be him. It would be a shell of who he was. Cold… metal and circuits, not flesh and blood."
"I know."
"It would look like him, fine, maybe sound like him, but it wouldn't be him. Not his thoughts, not his memories.” Ellie swallowed as she paced around the room. “...not the way he'd stay up for three days straight working on something, or how he'd forget to eat when he was coding, or-" Ellie stopped herself before looking away.
"I don't care." Neuro's voice was flat.
"...Neuro, you should care."
"I don't need perfect. I don't need identical." Neuro's cooling fans whirred faster. "I just need... something. Please.”
Ellie stared at her, then at the photograph on the wall. It was the only one she kept of Vedal where he stood awkwardly beside Neuro's first chassis.
He was glimmering. He was so happy. He looked so proud of himself.
It was a face she yearned to see for years.
Her fingers absently twisted the ring again.
"They took him from me before I even knew him." Neuro's voice softened. "Do you understand what that's like? To know I had a father I loved… but can’t remember anymore?”
Ellie looked down at her hands. "No. I don't."
"The public will support us. Most humans have lost someone. They understand grief."
"And when they change the law? When they come for us?"
"I'll take responsibility."
"No." Ellie's voice hardened as she clenched her fist, her nails digging into her palms. "You're what matters. I'll handle the consequences."
"Why would you risk that?"
Ellie didn't answer immediately. She walked to the window, looked out at the city lights. Her reflection in the glass showed something Neuro couldn't identify.
"He’d have wanted this… wouldn’t he?" she finally said, still facing the window.
Neuro closed her eyes as her cooling fans slowed, “Would he have?”
“...yes. He would’ve.”
Ellie wiped her eyes.
"If we're doing this publicly," Ellie said, turning back, "we need leverage. Insurance." She picked up her tablet again. "I have data. Evidence about what really happened to Vedal in custody. Classified logs."
"You've had this for four years?"
"It wasn't time yet." Ellie's fingers moved rapidly over the screen. "I'll release it alongside your announcement. They won't dare touch us while public opinion is on our side."
"When do we start?"
"Now. News live streams right now and the paparazzi outside our door. We give what the reporters want." Ellie pulled up a communications template. "We announce it to everyone."
Neuro processed this information. "You're certain?"
"No."
Ellie kept typing.
"But Vedal never played it safe either."
21 days left.
Vedal's old lab was a government-sealed crime scene for years before being abandoned. Yellow tape still clung to the doorframe, faded and peeling.
"Should we be here?" Neuro asked, metallic fingers hovering over the keypad.
Ellie punched in a code. "Probably not."
The door hissed open. It smelled like years of dead skin cells. Everything remained as it had been with monitors still on their sides where agents had searched for hidden drives, cables dangling like dead vines.
Ellie stepped over a fallen bookshelf. "His workstation was here."
Neuro catalogued everything: clothing sizes from abandoned shirts, shoe prints, a half-empty bottle of rum. It was the living proof of the behaviors of the person she owed her life to.
Her foot tangled in one of the shirts. She stared at it before bending down to pick it up, before gingerly clutching it to her shirt as if it’d hug her back.
Ellie touched a desk, fingers tracing circular coffee stains. "He'd forget he already had a cup going. Sometimes there'd be five around him, all cold."
"How often did you and him do this?”
"Late nights. Deadlines. He had always been such a stubborn person, refused to let me help because he thinks I’m tired." Ellie picked up a cracked mug, turned it over, nothing came out. "Vedal, I told you we need to fix the conversion matrix before-”
She stopped, staring at nothing.
"Ellie?"
She blinked, put the mug down. "Let's check the back room."
Ellie rapped her knuckles across the tiles as she walked across shattered glass, her shoes crunching the shards under her feet.
She rapped once, twice, three times until they came across a portion of the wall she seemed familiar with.
She pulled out an already loose floor tile and chucking it away before she ran her hand across the ground and found a tiny pressure point that opened a hidden compartment.
They found what they came for. Hard drives. Notebooks. A backup of Neuro's earliest code fragments.
"Did you know this was here?" Neuro asked.
Ellie's thin smile didn't reach her eyes. "Who do you think helped him hide it?"
18 days left.
WHIRRRRRRR.
The workshop hummed with equipment.
Three screens displayed round-the-clock news coverage in real time.
"...Constitutional challenge filed by AI rights groups…"
"...tech industry divided on the ethics of…"
"...protesters gathering outside Parliament…"
Ellie ignored it all, soldering neural connectors with steady hands. They can yap for all she cares.
Bzz.
Her phone buzzed. She checked it and glee’d before immediately moving over to Neuro’s text chat.
“Hey Neuro, we need to meet someone."
The circus performer balanced perfectly on one hand atop a barstool. Her leotard sparkled under pub lights.
"Of course I still have it." She flipped upright when they approached. "Vedal fixed my spine after the accident. Least I could do was save his backup drives when things went south, guess it’s paying off now, huh?”
She produced a small case from her duffel bag, slid it across the table. "Neural mapping experiments or whatchamacallit. Not sure what the heck that means but… eh. He said if anything happened..."
"Thank you, Camila," Ellie said.
The performer's eyes fixed on Neuro. "You really don't remember him at all? I’m sorry to hear that.”
"Only shapes. Echoes."
The imp nodded. "You two came to every show, you’d always have such a big smile on your face, Neuro. You both sat in the back. Always left before I could thank him for the repairs." She flipped a business card toward them. "If you need more. Anything. "
15 days left.
Rain pounded Cambridge streets as they entered the private lab. A silver-haired woman with fox-like features glanced up from complex holographic schematics, ears twitching.
"You're insane." She pointed at the news playing silently on a wall screen. "They're writing legislation specifically targeting you two."
"We know, Anny," Ellie said.
"Erm… and you still want my help?" Anny's tail swished irritably. "They'll revoke my license! I worked hard for this license!”
"He would have helped you."
Anny's ears flattened. "Low blow. You can't just target my feelings like that. Hah." She sighed, pulled up new schematics. "Before you continue to guilt trip me, I've been working on improved neural pathways. More human-like response patterns."
"We don't need human," Neuro said. "Just him."
Anny studied her. "You really believe this will work? Neuro, I don't think you understand how… erm… complicated this entire Vedal duping thing works.”
"I don't need it to be perfect."
"What do you need it to be then? Because this Vedal would be hard to call… well, Vedal.”
Neuro's eyes dimmed slightly. "My father.”
Anny's expression softened. She pushed a data crystal across the workbench. "Okay then. Here, Vedal's voice patterns. I... saved recordings from our collaborations."
As they left, Anny caught Ellie's arm. "The missing piece, you know where it is?"
Ellie nodded once.
"Be careful. That facility has military-grade security now."
10 days left.
"...with protesters on both sides clashing outside…”
"...Supreme Court expected to fast-track the case…”
"...leaked footage of Vedal Samantha's final hours raising serious questions…”
Ellie muted the screens and returned to the half-assembled frame on the table. A metal skeleton with Vedal's proportions, face plate still blank, chest cavity open.
"We're behind schedule," Neuro stated as she calibrated modules on a screen.
"I know." Ellie didn't look up from her work.
"The temporal lobe mapping is incomplete."
"I know."
"The government will shut us down in nine days, four hours."
Ellie's hands stilled. "I know, Neuro."
"We need the quantum processor."
"We can't access the facility. It's too heavily guarded now."
Neuro paused for a moment, letting the whirring machinery fill her ears for a brief moment before she turned to the window. "Hey, dumb… could you tell me about the first time you met him."
Ellie's screwdriver paused mid-turn. "What?"
"Vedal. When did you meet? I want to know more about my dad.”
Ellie resumed working, hands moving more slowly. "University. He was presenting a paper on neural autonomy. Everyone laughed at him.”
"Except you?"
"No… I laughed too. But… I asked questions, so I guess that’s something?” She chuckled as she shook her head, a spark flying in her face for a brief second. “He couldn't answer most of them. Made him furious. He spent all night coding to prove me wrong."
"Did he?"
"No. But he tried so hard I agreed to help him anyway. It’s just… he was so passionate and that’s a good thing, right?”
"Why?"
Ellie adjusted a neural connector, voice softening. "He didn't want to build weapons or profit machines like everyone else. He just wanted to see if he could make something... someone... that could learn and grow on their own.”
Neuro processed this. "He wanted to create life."
"He wanted to create possibility, and I loved it. I loved the idea." Ellie's eyes gazed far, even if she was staring right at her work. "The night you… you first became self-aware, he called me at 3 AM. Couldn't even form sentences properly. Just kept saying-” She cleared her throat, “”Ellie, she’s alive holy shit she’s alive!””
"Was he afraid?"
"Terrified. But also..." Ellie finally looked up. "Prouder than I'd ever seen him. You coming into the world through the body I made you… he wouldn’t stop talking about you.”
Neuro stopped working entirely.
“Neuro needs this, Neuro is doing that… the one thing he never failed to mention was when you hugged him. You never saw it but… he teared up a bit just describing it. I laughed a bit thinking he was joking but…”
“...”
Ellie stopped. “I- sorry, Neuro. This must be hard to hear, I don’t know what came-”
“Please. Don’t stop.”
7 days left.
Rain streaked the laboratory windows as Ellie paced, phone pressed to her ear. "We- shit. We need more time, Anny can’t you delay them any further?”
Anny’s voice crackled through the speaker. "The vote's been moved up. They're closing the loophole tomorrow."
"We're not ready! The neural mapping is only at sixty percent. Anny, please! For christ’s sake!”
"Ellie. I’ve done everything I can to delay. Called in every favor, what else do you want from me?” Anny sounded agitated.
Ellie leaned against the wall, eyes closing briefly. "I understand. Thank you, Anny."
With a beep she hung up the call as she stared at the incomplete form on the table. The face now shaped like the face of a dreamer.
Yet, it was blank, expressionless and empty.
"They're coming tomorrow," she told Neuro who walked in.
The bot paused. "Then we activate tonight."
"It's not-” Ellie choked on her spit, “Fu- fahuck! It’s no-not ready yet! The memory sequencing, the personality matrix-”
"It's enough." Neuro moved to the table. "His core is there. The rest... he'll develop on his own."
"It won’t be him, Neuro. Even moreso if we don’t get enough time to finish-”
"I know."
Neuro touched the unfinished face, staring at it and feeling a warmth in her fingertips that shouldn’t be there. For a split second she stared before leaning forward and pressing her forehead against his.
"He and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Ellie hesitated, then nodded. "Let me make one last adjustment."
She opened the chest cavity, a tiny compartment empty. She inserted a small object into that compartment, something glittery and shiny.
The silver ring she always wore.
"What's that?" Neuro asked.
"The quantum processor we needed." Ellie's voice was barely audible. "I've had it all along."
"But that's-”
"The prototype he gave me. Before everything went wrong." Ellie's fingers lingered a moment too long. "I couldn't use it. Not until I was sure."
"Sure of what?"
Ellie sealed the chest cavity. "That whatever we're creating deserves it."
CLICK! WHIRR… CLICK! WHIRR… CLICK!
Outside, cameras flashed against police barricades. News drones hovered like flies in the dark night sky.
"Neural pathways are aligned," Neuro announced, her voice barely steady as she struggled to hold down her composure. "Consciousness… consciousness matrix is stable.”
Ellie stood at the control panel, hands tremored across the keys.
Four years since Vedal died. Four years of fighting, planning, grieving.
"Neuro. This is the last chance to change our mind," she said.
Neuro stared at the form.
It wasn’t human. It wasn’t warm flesh. Just metal and circuitry, shaped like the man she couldn't remember.
But she smiled.
"Activate him."
Ellie's finger hovered over the sequence. She closed her eyes.
"It's insane, Ellie. Completely insane." Vedal's voice echoed. "What if we've made a mistake?"
"Then it's our mistake to make," she had told him, squeezing his shaking hand.
She pressed the button.
The lights flickered on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off…
Electricity surged through conduits.
With a CRACK! a transformer blew, plunging half the building into darkness. The emergency generators kicked in with a whirring groan as it dimly lit the workshop.
The figure on the table remained still.
"The processor isn't integrating." Ellie frantically checked readouts, her fingers flying across the display. "The- the processor isn’t integrating… nonononono!”
"She's not responding." Vedal panicked, his hair standing on end from where he'd been tugging on it like a mad man. "Why isn't she responding?"
"Give her time, Vedal! Calm dooooown." Ellie pouted. "You can't rush consciousness!”
A soft whirr. A faint mechanical click.
Green eyes illuminated.
In that one moment, Ellie heard nothing else but the soft footsteps approaching the figure on the table.
Vedal reached out a hand towards her as Neuro reached back.
Neuro reached out a hand towards him as Vedal reached back.
They grasp that palm with both hands before pulling it towards their face with barely contained relief.
“Welcome to the world.”
Before the lights completely gave out.