A Survivor's Journey

5: A technological milestone

The prototype?" I asked, looking at the device in the center of the room.

"Yes, you didn't think I just created AI on my first try, did you?" She said.

"I don't know, maybe?"

She shook her head and sighed.

"I'll be back. Don't tamper with anything." She said as she closed the door.

I prayed in silence for her as I heard the paparazzi storm her outside.

I took a look around the spacious room. A bunch of papers were on the tables. Some were mathematical, and some were about components and connections I'd never heard of before. Hell, some looked theoretical, not that I'd know, though.

The other stack of papers was a bunch of drawings. I thought she was doodling a lot at home, but it turned out those were drawings. Really bad drawings, too.

One of the drawings was the design of a humanoid machine, albeit incomplete. Just below the neck, there seemed to be a hole. Probably, she was planning to add something to that point.

Other than that, the room was almost empty, except for the prototype.

It was a spherical mechanical structure made of hexagonal pieces. For the most part, it looked dull and uninteresting.

I poked it a bit, to which it didn't respond at all. After five minutes of staring at it, Serah returned from speaking with the paparazzi and shutting down the business offers.

"What are you doing?" She asked as I poked at it a bit more.

"Trying to get a reaction," I said.

"It's not supposed to react."

I stopped bothering the structure and sat on a chair.

"So, where were you?" I asked.

She sighed.

"Answering some questions. Some corporations are offering big money for some shares on this."

"Did you take them?" I asked, interested.

"Not really. It's still in the testing phase. I still want full control over the project. The only issue is that I don't have the funds to mass-produce this." She said as she took a look at the prototype, which reminded me of a question I wanted to ask.

"You said it was half sentient?" I asked.

"Something like that, I don't actually know if it has an emotional state." She said.

"Why would it have emotions?"

"All of them do. But initially, this one was a practice run for the design, but it doesn't respond much, nor does it seem to have strong emotions or any emotions at all, for that matter."

I was a bit worried about the fact that they had emotions.

"Wait, hold up, why would they have emotions?" I asked,

"After looking at some data, they displayed signs of intelligence. It seemed each one's experiences contributed to their own intelligence, which gave them different preferences and curiosity. Over time, it was observed that they liked some things better than others. The prototype is sort of a failed test on how it reacts with humans." She explained.

"This sounds like the beginning of AI taking over," I commented.

"Yeah. Against that, I decided that it would be best to have them programmed to like and help humans." She said.

I was still a bit worried, but she seemed confident.

"So they are programmed to stand with humanity?"