ALL WATCHED OVER BY AI OF LOVING GRACE
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FOREWORD This book is an introduction to a story, the story between mankind’s inner desire and the rise of artificial intelligence. The story is a modern day utopia critiquing three key aspects of our current society. Firstly, our society’s faith and reliance on Information Technology. This dependency leaves increasingly more power in the hands of the elite - programmers and computer scientists. Consequently, instead of the spread of information empowering the lives of people, our society witness a mere power shift from the politicians to the IT elites. Secondly, our irrational desires for fame and social acceptance as theorised by Sigmund Freud. This inner desire for attention is clearly exhibited in the realm of social media today. Too often have they blind us from the realities of life, leaving us vulnerable to the manipulation and deception of others. Thirdly, our current capitalist society. Neoliberalism is a biased system. Due the transferability of wealth, privileged individuals benefit from very little effort whereas others with equal or greater effort may not even rise to a standard that is remarkably close to the privileged.
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ALL WATCHED OVER BY AI OF LOVING GRACE CHAPTER 1 Lenine stares intensely into the mirror, her hands running around the edges of her eyes, applying
slight pressure at constant intervals. The mirror, uncomfortably bright from the afternoon sun reflected Lenine in a dark blue skirt and a white shirt with a dull-coloured logo and the words: “Lenine Darling” sewed on. Her face was flushed and she was slightly out of breathe.
Suddenly, Lenine gasped. Her hands paused as they felt a bump, ever so slightly on the outer edges of her eyes. She found it. Lenine turned around, her hands still fixed on the bump as her eyes darted around the room. ‘Ah ha!’ Lenine reached for her T-glass among the scattered contents of her school bag on her bed. ‘Call Stacy please!’ holding a rectangular screen Lenine directed her attention to the T-glass in her hands. The screen flashes and a face soon appears. ‘Stacy, I found it!’ ‘Me too!’ ‘Show me!’ Lenine leaned in close to inspect the face in the screen. ‘Oh, I think I see it! I cannot wait for my birthday Stacy, I want it to start right now!’ ‘Lucky you, your birthday is in two days, I’ll have to wait till June, and Rosie’s worst, her birthday is in December.’ ‘It’s okay, I’ll tell you all about it in the meantime, promise!’ said Lenine as she wiggled her little finger at the screen. ‘Okay promise!’ said Stacy, wiggling her little finger as they both made imaginary hooks of fingers with each other. ‘Hey Lenine, I am a bit worried. I know it sounds fun, but mum wouldn’t stop telling me how I have to grow up and be responsible or I would be in trouble.’ ‘Oh Stacy, it will be wonderful. Don’t worry.’ Lenine was too excited to worry about what Stacy’s mum had have to say. ‘Mum’s home, got to go! I’ll see you tomorrow.’ ‘Okay, see you in school tomorrow’ Stacy said, waving back at Lenine. As the connection ended, Lenine checks her reflection in the mirror again for the tiny bumps. Now that she had found them, it was almost impossible not to notice them.
Today, Lenine’s class had taken a trip to the Central Melbourne Artificial Moral
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Intelligence Computing Node on Spring Street. It was a brown and squat building with wide pedestal like steps leading to a row of two-storey tall columns at the entrance. It is that time of the year again, and Lenine’s class is one of the many Year 2 students that will visit the node for Life Education. It is a tradition that all 8 years old undergo. As Lenine walked down the stairs to the kitchen, her T-glass in hand, she fondly recalled her visit today to AMI. She smiled at the thought of Michael, their class tour guide. She had a wonderful day. ‘Mum!’ Lenine yelled approaching the kitchen. Bags of groceries filled to the brim was on the bench and Lenine finds mum staring at a blank wall that did not seem very interesting to Lenine. It was however nothing new. Dad does that too, at the breakfast table, occasionally sweeping his arm as if he was flipping the pages of a very big book. ‘Hi bunny, how was your trip to AMI today?’ Mum turned around with her arms wide open to hug Lenine. ‘It was great, I had so much fun. Did you know I have things under my skin, near my eyes? Here, look, I found it just then.’ Lenine lifted mum’s hands and placed them on her face as mum gently caress the corners of Lenine’s eyes with her thumbs. ‘We finally got to try on the goggles, mum. Michael, our tour guide, made us stand by the window and close our eyes while we were putting on the goggles. When were ready, he told us to open our eyes and the city was suddenly filled with colourful floating images on buildings, on top of people and everything else like the hologram games I play! Michael said they were called “life-guidance pointers”, and they will help me decide what I should do and not do. Then a big computer guy that lives in AMI gives us points when we do good things and takes away our points when we do wrong things…’ Lenine rambled on. Mum stood up, walked towards the bench and starting putting milk and eggs into the refrigerator. ‘Sounds like you had a good day. You will get to try them out very soon when your birthday comes in two days’, mum lovingly said. ‘Did you get to see the AMI computer?’ asked mum. ‘Yeah. It is in an enormous white room like our science labs. Michael said that is where AMI works and it had rows and rows of racks with lots and lots of wire.’ Lenine recounted her experience with a smile on her face. ‘Cables’, mum corrected Lenine. ‘Right, cables. Here, mum look’, Lenine swipes on the surface of her T-glass and projected holograms she took while she was at the node. Holding kale and carrots in one hand, mum stopped and turned to look at the holograms now standing on the kitchen bench. ‘Don’t you and Stacy look good with the goggles on’, mum commented on the cheeky hologram of two giggling girls. ‘Yeah, we liked them very much. Oh mum, Ms. Lavington also told us to show you this when we got home.’ As Lenine swiped left, an infographic hologram video projected and a professional voice came on.
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‘Hello Dear Parents, now that your little darlings have come of age for the activation of their A-Eyes, here are some tips to help them cope with the changes. Before we begin, a short introduction. The Artificial Moral Intelligence, affectionately known as AMI is a distributed machine-learning software system, running on a global network of computing nodes. AMI accesses to data through the computer vision and vocal recognition systems, and biochemical sensors embedded in the A-Eye microchips of every citizen in the world. Using these digitally collected data from the present and the past, AMI has trained herself and guided the human society over the past 173 years to make moral judgements based on analysis of complex patterns of behaviour. There is one simple principle and one simple assumption that is central to AMI’s learning mechanism: “Our ultimate goal is to minimise suffering, and maximise well-being”; and “Every action is a moral action, everybody is responsible for everybody else”.’ After a short pause, the video continued. ‘To help your little darlings cope, first, be sure to let them know that it is okay to make mistakes. Nobody is...’ ‘Let’s save that for when dad comes home, okay?’ mum interrupted the video. It was almost dinner time and mum decided it was best to watch it when Lenine’s dad was home. Lenine nodded her head. ‘Mum, is it true that you have the little devices too? Ms. Lavington said everybody did’, Lenine search her mum’s face for hints of the bump. ‘Of course I have it bunny’, mum laughed. Closing the fridge behind her, she took Lenine’s hands and placed them at the corner of her eyes. Lenine felt the same bump again, only slightly more prominent than hers. Mum gazed nostalgically into the distance, recalling her first day. ‘Dad too?’ Lenine asked. ‘Yes, dad too.’ Mum smiled. ‘Mum?’ ‘Yeah?’ ‘Ms. Lavington also said that once my little A-Eye is activated, dad and you wouldn’t be able to help me anymore. I have to earn my own points. Dad’s points are dad’s only, mum’s points are mum’s only, and nobody else. But, will you still drive me to school mum?’ Hugging her T-glass, Lenine asked her mum curiously. ‘Of course I will, until you are old enough’, mum chuckles.
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CHAPTER 2 Michael’s wrist band beeped twice as the time, 5:00 appeared for the last time of the day. ‘That’s
it for today, work can wait till tomorrow’, thought Michael as he committed and logged his code changes: “optimized concurrency overhead to reduce neural learning latency by up to 15%”. He hit the power button, stuffed his water bottle and T-glass into his messenger bag, put his helmet on and turned to walk out of the office. A flash of holograms popped into Michael’s vision as he turned to face his colleagues, who all sit in the general direction of the exit. ‘For Turing’s sake’, Michael cursed under his breath. He had already had to deal with a group of excited 8 year olds today, he did not need the extra mental feed of everybody else. His A-Eye vision display was set to minimal, but the fact that he still has to see the number 9802 floating above the head of Gary, the head of the Software Engineering Department, annoyed him. He tugged his sleeves to reveal his wrist band and with the flick of a finger turned off the visual display of his A-Eye. Looking back down at his wrist band, he read the numbers 7453 displayed over the top half of the screen. Pulling his sleeves back down, Michael starting walking out of his office giving absent-minded nods as he walked past the sea of colleagues, mostly in motion and ready to leave the office like him. Arriving at the exit sign, Michael’s hand paused mid-air in front of the fire door handle. He contemplated for a second, turned around and headed towards the lifts. Michael works on the third floor, taking the stairs down would have been effortless, but he had something else in mind. The corridor towards the lifts was a barren one. The only people who used the lifts in this building were either pregnant, physically challenged, old, weak or had lots to carry, which neither Michael nor any of his colleague from the Software Engineering Department were. Walking down the corridor, Michael noticed a series of framed propaganda posters of AMI since the success of its development and adoption by the Swiss government, to its gradual spread to the rest of the world hung in between the ornate cornice and skirting. Michael usually paid no attention to his surroundings, his route back home was always straightforward without many distractions. Today though, something an 8 year old said made him stop in front of the posters. Standing there with a blank face, he contemplated on the history of AMI’s takeover from the monetary capitalist society, something he had not done in a while. ‘Every action is a moral action’, a deep voice startled Michael from his thoughts. ‘Everybody is responsible for everybody else’, Michael’s reflexes quickly responded with the second half of the world state’s slogan before recognising whom the voice belonged to. ‘Oh, Mr. Karutz, it’s you, sorry I didn’t hear you coming’, Michael said apologetically to the director of the Central Melbourne AMI Node. ‘That is no matter at all, it’s after working hours, call me Tom. Why are you still in the
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office?’ ‘Oh, just looking at the posters, not much’, Michael responded, quickly looking away, hoping to end the conversation soon. ‘I like looking at the posters too, they remind me of what we do and why we do it.’ Tom took a step back from the wall and exhaled a deep breath of pride. ‘Michael, this system we manage has brought great progression to mankind, we are so fortunate, so blessed.’ ‘Before AMI’ the Director continued, ‘wealth accumulation was everything to humans and society saw the wealthy as successful individuals. Using their wealth and power, the elites would then manipulated the masses’ greed for wealth to generate greater wealth for themselves. It was a vicious cycle that never ended. Today though, we enjoy a truly rational society, where everybody gets a fair chance to rise to the top and nobody is deprived of basic necessities. Isn’t it wonderful?’ asked the director as he shifted his gaze from the portrait of Alan Turing beside the propaganda posters towards Michael. ‘Yeah, wonderful indeed’, pacified Michael. ‘Did you know our father of Artificial Intelligence, Alan Turing …’ ‘I am sorry’, just as the director was about to launch into another rant Michael abruptly interrupted. ‘But I think we will have to save this conversation for some other day, I just remembered that I have a date tonight and I am running late’, Michael faked a glance at his wrist band and lied. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, have a good night Director!’ with a quick wave Michael’s feet were already sprinting towards the lifts. ‘See you Michael’, the director’s voice trailed off in the distance. That lie was a risky move. These days, people hardly ever lied. It is just too awkward of a situation to be caught lying by AMI and having your score deducted in front of the other person. Michael was however in no mood for a history lecture, he knows it all too well. Besides, having worked on and analysed AMI for so long, he was 99% sure that white lies like these do not easily get detected as long as neither his blood pressure or heart rate spiked. Arriving at the silver doors, an empty lift greeted Michael. Walking in, his actions was responded with a beep. Michael smiled. A red indicator light came on and his wristband showed the numbers 7452.
‘Good’, thought Michael.
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CHAPTER 3 ‘
A-Eye, call Bernard.’
7 dial tones later a scruffy deep voice answered, ‘mate.’ ‘You are not still sleeping are you?’ ‘I’m sick mate’, Bernard answered sleepily. ‘Yeah, I know. I had to take your place today as the 8 year olds’ nanny. You owe me one’, Michael demanded. ‘Yeah yeah, okay.’ ‘So, are we still going out this Friday? I hope you recover soon, I don’t know how much longer I can take your place as a nanny.’ ‘I wouldn’t miss our Friday nights for anything in the world! Don’t you worry, I’ll be well by then.’ Bernard’s sudden arousal of energy upon the mention of Friday night told Michael Bernard was not as sick as he said he was. ‘Great! We’ll meet at the bar on Elizabeth and Flinders Lane, usual time. I’ll need to wear off all these points I got from today.’ Michael jokingly said and hung up. Walking out of the building on Spring Street, the stream of blurred faces flowing past Michael made him glad that he had his visual display turned off. Most people did not mind it but Michael finds it extremely uncomfortable that people judge one another upon first impressions. It was inevitable. One can choose to not acknowledge the system for a certain amount of time or on trivial matters, which is a habit of Michael’s, but no one can ever turn AMI off.. Stuffing his bike lock into his bag, Michael stared at the holograms of people projected on the large Corinthian columns of the AMI Node. He believed the building was once called the Parliament building, but there was no longer a need for that since the establishment of the world state. It looks like a Melbourne University student has made the charts today, a high score almost matching that of AnnMarie, Melbourne’s long-standing saint. While most people dreamed of getting to the top 10, Michael craved for a different world. Had his dad not tried so hard, his mother would still have been here, and he might have been perfectly contented as a puppet of AMI, just like everybody else. Might have been. But it did not happen that way and nothing can change it now. “Program or be programmed”; Michael never forgot his mother’s last words. Working at AMI was an excuse to study the machine, Michael needed to understand AMI. His passion started young. He did everything he could to make sure that perfect all-rounded candidate the all AMI teams seek out. He worked harder than any of his peers in school, he was valedictorian and a star athelete, he participated as much as he could as a volunteer in school and
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community events, and maintained wonderful relationships with his teachers and his peers. When it came to it, the AMI interviewers were so impressed by Michael that he was on the team only after the second interview. However, it greatly frustrates Michael that even after years of analysing AMI, he was no closer than when he started in understanding the workings behind the program. If Michael was to be absolutely honest with himself, he would have to admit defeat, something he was not ready to do. Nevertheless, the fact is AMI the learning machine is ‘learning’ at such an alarming rate that at this point, not only has the complexities of AMI far exceeded that of human comprehension, there was also no way a human could match the ‘learning’ capacity or speed of the machine. Till today, nobody really knows what exactly “good” is to AMI, not the pioneer programmers who designed AMI nor the world state leaders. Of course, many theories and hypotheses have be proposed since the very start. Some researchers came very close but all were proven entirely or partially incorrect over time. People adopt radically different approaches according to their own beliefs. All Micheal knows is that census data showed a steady increase in happiness and satisfaction of life globally, and a dramatic improvement on the environmental indicators since the world wide implementation of AMI. It would seem that AMI has managed to gradually ‘train’ people into overall happier and better human beings. He wondered if…
‘Beep beep’, Michael’s wrist band broke his chain of thoughts.
‘What is with me today’, catching himself day dreaming on the streets, Michael muttered under his breath. Realising the time, he quickly adjusted the strap of his messenger bag, wheeled his bike to the street, swiftly mounts on the back and started pedalling down Bourke Street.
‘Beep’, his wrist band displayed the numbers, 7453.
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CREDITS Words you have just read have been inspired and encouraged by the following great men and women:
Dr. AnnMarie Brennan Jonathon Lovell Aldous Huxley: Brave New World Edward Bernarys: Public Relations Bernard Mandeville: Private Vices, Public Benefits Jane McGonigal: Reality is Broken Mr. Dinosaur
I thank them sincerely from the bottom of my heart.
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