Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 13

Will felt a bit off.

His ears had a numbness to them, as he listened intently to the silence. It was as if the apartment only had a certain quantity of sound, and the previous cacophony of activity had sucked it all dry.

But it wasn't just the lack of sound. The sudden absence of another presence in the room made him feel like the emptiness was inside his own body. It had all happened so fast, and now he was left alone. This hadn't bothered him in the past, why was it pressing down on him now?

It must be something else nagging at the edge of his periphery. Had he made a mistake returning the selfiebot? No, that one was obvious; if a robot thinks it's human, there's a defect somewhere. What was it trying to tell him about Paige? Why would she care about his alleged selfishness? They got along very well as it was, thank you very much.

The low hum of the gaming system slowly emerged into his awareness. The holographic display from the Epochs of Civilisation game filled the room, but it was now making a different sound, a pair of rising chimes he'd never heard before.

As Will studied the display closer, the first thing he made out was a flashing apparition, clearly not of the material world because the words made no sense and could only emanate from some transcendental source. The game was over, finished, with a winner declared. He rubbed his eyes. Read it again.

He breathed it out. "You win."

After the shock, his mind struggled to catch up. I'm picturing one of those Wiley Coyote cartoons, where he's hovering in mid-air over a canyon. But this time the drop down was a cavalcade of thoughts twisting and enveloping him in multiple helixes.

"Wha--" he said. "Bu-- Wou-- Do--"

He made some additional notes of confusion which, with the right pitch, could easily be used to create a symphony. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.

The selfiebot had done it, had beaten Lord Dunkel, the greatest game AI ever created.

Would the replacement have the same capabilities? Surely it wasn't ingrained in every selfiebot. Why would the game developers want you to buy something that could win you the competition? Besides, in the games he'd seen so far, some of the cams were clearly selfiebots, hovering in mid-air, looking for the perfect angle, and they sure didn't help.

Had it just finished off his great start? The opening stages to any strategy game were crucial, as the effects of each decision would multiply over time. But he hadn't done anything out of the ordinary, and not something he hadn't already executed with far more aplomb in previous practice games.

"Surely it wasn't..." he said, musing.

The bot was clearly abnormal, with some of its wires crossed, but maybe it was closer to a human savant, the damage giving rise to an emergent property: defeating enemy AI.

This was his chance. He could win the competition. But what did it do? How did it succeed? There was no replay capability, so he couldn't even reverse engineer the winning strategy. The only person who knew the answer wasn't even a person. And they were gone.

Will shot a look toward the delivery chute. Then raced out the apartment.