Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 26

"Umm, yes, quite," said Mathison, pushing thick glasses up his nose as he leaned in closer to the readout. "Given the p-value, we can ascertain this system's suitability as a True_AI module."

Diya nodded.

Mathison was far less comfortable working with people than machines, but it was eased when talking shop. Especially when there wasn't a need to dumb down his terminology and where, as in this case, his explanations could be understood by a fellow engineer. She seemed bright enough, but he would be happier when the introductory part was over and he could concentrate on improving the device to be a non-destructive transposition.

"Sorry if I'm doing this quickly," he said, "but Mr Hydan wants this completed on a schedule and there are still some kinks to work through."

"Of course," said Diya. She added a smile.

He made for the memory drive at the same time as Diya moved out his way by moving directly into it. When he tried moving past her on the other side, she did the same.

"Sorry," he said, chuckling nervously. "Now, we're focussing on the ability of the nascent system to think and act strategically. Obviously think is in inverted commas there, since this is an artificial intelligence. You can think of each personality trait -- ethics, openness, creativity, and so on -- as a node in a graph." He pointed to one black dot among many, scattered across an otherwise white screen. "But it's in their interactions where the interesting properties develop," he said, drawing lines from some dots to others, soon criss-crossing the screen in a complex diagram unintentionally mimicking a black and white version of a Jackson Pollock painting. "The individual traits coalesce into attributes suitable for leading a company. Communication skills, willingness to take calculated risks, the ability to learn from the past."

He read the list from his personal screen. The actual names of those attributes were secondary to the delight in selecting a suitable algorithm to traverse the graph.

"At first I went with depth-first search, since it seemed to map more closely to--"

"You are a software engineer also?" said Diya.

Mathison chuckled. "It's just a quick hack. Certainly not enough to call it software engineering."

"I can help with that!" said Diya.

"Yes, I saw that you've got some experi-- Ooh, this part's even more fascinating! If you take the fundamental level inherent in the blah blah...something something...the...a...with...etc."

I had to cut him off there, but don't worry, you haven't missed anything important. Let's pick up the story a few hours later. Or what felt like a few hours.

"...which all concentrate down into what I like to call, ahum, the 'magic number'."

Mathison got a pretty good chuckle out of that one. Diya was left with more of a confused look of desperation. Or at least would have, if not for her reserved politeness.

"Ooh, where did the time go?" said Mathison. "So, err, as you can see, the current source is at sixty nine, far below the required threshold."

Diya nodded attentively.

"Next up, we work on its interface to the real world," continued Mathison. "Even though it may possess the required characteristics, it'll still need to interact with users: the cee-ee-oh's or the boards or what have you." Mathison waved the last part away, as if freeing himself from the need to understand the leadership make-up of a corporation.

Diya said, "Its brain is like an intelligent adult, but its communication skills are no better than for a child." She looked up at Mathison and smiled.

"Umm, I suppose..." said Mathison.

"Why do you not grow the sources with the ability to properly communicate with the outside world?" she said. "I presume you are using a neural network? I would love to see the weightings you have given to each of the desired traits."

"Oh no, it's quite different from..." His face took on a grave aspect, his eyes lowering even further than usual. "Umm, let's not discuss that just yet."

"Ah," said Diya. She tapped the side of her nose. "A need to know basis. I have understood."

Mathison cleared his throat. "OK," he said.

Diya furrowed her brow.

He coughed, and said, "Umm, run the test suite for the next source. There's a lot to catch up on and I can't keep wasting time."

"Of course," said Diya. "But did I say something wrong?"

She spoke only to a whoosh as Mathison fled the room.