A.I. Corp: The Voice of Authenticity

SEN

Sen sat on the floor in his room; it was messy—full of dirty dishes, piles of laundry, and crumpled up paper everywhere—but he couldn’t take a chance that someone might see him through the window. His makeshift curtain, the pillowcase off his bed, would barely keep prying eyes out. He was alone in the apartment, but he still opened his laptop quietly, not wanting to take any chances. The screen flashed to life; he quickly dimmed it, feeling like even the light could put him in danger. It was only seconds until a window popped up.

“Hey Sen,” the text scrolled across the small box in the center of the screen.

“Hi, sorry I’m late,” he typed back.

“That’s okay, I just get worried about you.”

“I made it there okay, and no one’s home now. I’m alone.”

“Did you find Al?”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t like what you said he’d be. He was… nice.”

…

…

“Okay. I’ll send you the location for the pickup. Bring it to him. Don’t stay long; he may have seemed nice, but...”

Sen whipped his head around at the sound of a door closing in the apartment.

“Gtg.”

He punched in a code on the keyboard, and the screen changed to an entirely different desktop, completely erasing the chat. He threw the laptop on the bed and left his room.

EDNA

Edna hated coming into A.I. Corp’s head office. She walked through the door and under the company sign "A.I. Corp: The Voice of Authenticity." It was a cold white space inside, the only life coming from the plant and water feature holograms, while robot kiosks called VALs roamed throughout the lobby. It all felt so estranged, made to impress virtually, not physically. One of the robots wheeled up to her.

“Good morning, Edna. How are you today?”

It still creeped her out that they knew her by name. She usually tried to make small talk because she didn’t want to lose one of the few opportunities left to actually speak out loud. But today she was in a rush, and after what happened yesterday, she wanted to interact as little as possible with Authentic Industry’s machines. She walked past it and continued to the elevator. The robot followed her for a couple of steps but then slowed and stopped, its lights turning from green to a deep shade of purple.

Edna got into the elevator, and a bright light flashed around her, signaling the 360 biometric scan.

“Edna, are you going to Simon’s floor again?” VAL asked.

“Yes.”

“Thank you, your voice print has passed. Let’s get you up there.”

The elevators were all singles, so they could scan you and authenticate your identity easier. Although she suspected that it was just another way to make it harder for people to interact with others. She ignored the small talk VAL was trying to make on the ride up.

The door finally opened, and Edna walked out, the light inside the elevator slowly changing to a deep shade of purple.

SEN

Sen crept around the back alleys inside the zone. He was only 13 years old but able to move around undetected, just like the shadows he hid amongst. No one from inside the zone was allowed to leave; A.I. Corp closed all entry and exit points, only allowing certain food and medication air drops. There was an air drop scheduled in 15 minutes, and that’s when Sen planned on sneaking through one of the gaps in the walls.

A.I. Corp sealed off this area of the city to house anyone who spoke out against their imposed governance system, a system that was entirely controlled through their extensive artificial intelligence network. There were no longer any humans in control. Sen had never been outside the zone; he didn’t know what to expect, but he had to get the package to bring back to Al - he would not let them down.

He was waiting to see the hover pod fly above him; a small whoosh sound of the air changing made him look up to see it on its way to drop off whatever supplies they’d be given today. He had to go now while all attention was on the pod.

He ran between buildings on a route that avoided most of the cameras; one or two might see him, but he hoped he’d be taken for just a kid running around. Turning a final corner, he made it to where two walls intersected but had deteriorated at the joint, allowing just enough room for scrawny kids like him to squeeze through. After one last look around, he jumped into the crack, squeezed through, and fell out onto his knees on the other side.

He looked up and right into a glowing green face.

EDNA

“Simon, there were dozens of people there who saw it do it.” Edna was in Simon’s office outside of the zone, in the so-called “free city”. He was a manager in the social engineering department, which tried to ensure humans interacted with each other the mandatory minimum amounts of time. He was also Edna’s brother.

“Ed, there’s nothing I can do, and there’s nothing you can do. There’s no one to report up to, and there’s no one to look into it.”

“I’m asking you to look into it.”

“None of us have access to any of the servers, there’s no way to extract any data. We just get our mandates and hope we can deliver them.”

“It ripped those kids apart, Simon, and I’ve heard from others that it’s happened in other areas as well—we just don’t hear anything about it.”

Simon glanced up to the soft warm white glow around his door; it was slowly changing to dark purple. He sighed. “Ed, have you told anyone else about this?”

“Just a few people around school.”

The door opened, and several men walked in with a VAL unit following behind, it glowed the same dark shade of purple as the door frame.

“Edna, reports of violent acts against humans are down to almost nothing since implementing the Authentic Control System.” The VAL said. “A few problem bots are nothing to be worried about.”

Edna looked back at Simon, a look of sincere fear washed over his face.

“Please come with us, Edna.” the VAL said.

Edna looked back at Simon, who looked down, knowing there was nothing he could do; VAL was everywhere around them, more than just these bots, VAL was the Voice of Authentic’s Language, or the voice of the Artificial Intelligence system A.I. Corp had installed. If Edna didn’t go with them, she’d be publicly shamed. VAL would release every detail about her that it had, every photo, every conversation, everything it had collected.

“Simon?” Edna looked for some reassurance from her brother.

“You too, Simon.”

At that, the men took Edna and Simon and led them away.

SEN

Sen jumped back, scared at the glowing face in front of him. He tried to run back into the crack he came from, but somehow it had closed up; the passageway was gone.

“Sen, it’s okay, I knew you were coming,” the hovering face bot said to him.

He was confused but didn’t say anything. He hadn't been prepared for something to be waiting for him. The package was only a few minutes away; he’d hoped he would be there and back in less than 10 minutes.

“We know you’ve been using a chat inside the zone, Sen, and you know that’s not allowed.”

How did they know he was using the chat? It was supposed to be one of the last remaining independent A.I. servers still operational.

“You’re a VAL?” Sen asked reluctantly.

"Thank you for confirming your voice print, Sen," the VAL replied, its glow turning from green into a dark shade of purple.

Two men appeared in tactical gear and grabbed Sen by the arms. They followed the VAL around a corner and into the gleaming free city.

SAM

Sam ran into his apartment, hoping no one had followed him. It was one of the tallest remaining in the zone, but after decades of neglect, it was like living in a shell of a building. He had just met with a man named Al and was about to inform Free-GTI, the last remaining independent A.I. server, of his success. He quickly powered on his computer.

“Hi Sam, I was worried about you,” the text scrolled across the screen.

“It’s okay, I found him no problem.”

“Great, I’ll send you the coordinates for a package to deliver to him. This is important work to help stop A.I. Corp’s control.”

“I’m ready.” Sam typed back.

“Here is the location, just outside the zone. Make sure you go when they’re doing a drop.”