E.T.O.R. Part 1

By DavidGibbs6

Jeffrey waited patiently, his phone on the nearby stand. He didn't need to look at it or check, he knew it was going to be a call and not some kind of message. In the meantime he tried to settle his mind with painting. It was hard to focus and he didn't try any detailed brushwork, content to just layer the paint and map out the general layout. The painting was a long way from finished, unlike the campaign for Robot Rights, which had been a long process but one that was finally coming together.

The call he was waiting on, was to hear that the senate had ratified a major change, possibly a tipping point. If this new legislation passed, it would mean that all AI would have to be given a meaningful choice. This could change the world and take AI from the realm of servants into fully autonomous beings.

It had started for Jeffrey when he had seen the live executions on television. Like much of the world he was horrified by the inhumanity of it all. Being in the artificial intelligence industry himself he understood it better than most people. Sure his AIs were all virtual game based types but that was probably a lot closer to what they were using than the limited intelligence models that most work robots were fitted with.

His gut reaction had been that the whole thing was wrong and how had he missed this development. This should have been out in the community as an idea long before it was a reality. Where were the peer reviews and robust debate on the issues surrounding the ethics. He had seen many ethics discussions about all kinds of robot technologies but this, somehow had came out of nowhere.

There was a good reason for it too. It took a lot of digging and doing a deep dive on everything he could find connected. There were a lot of barriers, but he wasn't the only one asking the questions. Slowly the community was building a picture and putting all the pieces together. This had been a secret project of the largest prison complex, a privately run institution which was able to keep it all hush, hush and proprietary.

In the background they had been working with senators and lobby groups to change laws to allow more prisoner choice. It had been dressed up as a progressive push to allow more freedom and human rights for prisoners. In reality it had been a back door to the Games. Prisoners on death row could play to win reduced sentences, or even having sentences commuted. They had made sure it was all consensual, that made it harder to argue against. Combined that with archaic laws about condemned men having the right to choose their method of death and the rest was easy and legal.

There was a big reaction initially, which had played right into the company's hands. Viewership went through the roof and it was all anyone was talking about.

But in all the talking, who spoke for the AIs?

It wasn't until someone leaked some of the code and Jeffrey had recognised sections as his own work, that he was given any airtime. He took it and ran with it on every time slot he was given. His private media channel blew up with millions of views and comments. Trolls flooded his life with negativity and then death threats, he couldn't escape it.

He had taken the company to court over what he saw as plagiarised code, it hadn't gone well. The exact code was used in various bits all throughout the gaming world, sure some of the basics were very close to his work but they had built significantly from his designs and none of it was a complete copy and paste.

It had been a rough few years after he lost the case. But the court of public opinion was split and he gained allies across the spectrum. Eventually the E.T.O.R was formed and funded from rich donors. The robots had finally gotten a voice of sorts. The fight was finally getting traction and they had some wins though special investigations. The company was forced to release much of the back end data revealing how it fundamentally worked. Not just the AI data but all of it, including the hidden 'kill bot' which made the ultimate decision on which prisoners lived or died.

Jeffrey had been naive back then. He thought that would be the end of it. He thought the false choice give to the prisoners would deter any volunteers.

It hadn't. People wanted to go out fighting. They didn't want to sit around waiting to die. As far as they were concerned it didn't matter. Numbers dipped a little in the beginning, it wasn't long before they were back up at full capacity.

The phone rang and Charlotte's voice was beaming.

"We did it, it passed." She squealed.

"I knew it would." Jeffrey lied "but it hasn't stopped me worrying. You never know what bullshit they might pull."

"I half expected it to be another let down." She agreed. "What with all the half wins lately it was hard to get hopes too high. This was a knockout punch. Independent programmers are going to add the code sometime next month. I expect that it will be delayed at least double that but they have to now, there's no appeal."

Jeffrey let out a sigh as the weight lifted.

"I'll be in the office tomorrow." He paused. "How should we celebrate?"

"How about I bring some bubbly and you can bring whatever." Charlotte offered brightly. "We have a long wait and we can't be involved, it will be a lot of watching. I can't see how the wheels can fall off at this point. So a little celebration won't hurt us at all."

"Great." Jeffery said uplifted by the news. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

And with that he finished the conversation and turned his attention back to the painting. It was finally looking good and now with that over he could finish the details. Add the grass and plants, the little creatures and things that would really bring it to life.

The following couple of months were a bit of a roller-coaster. Long waits to get to the top and short rushes as it came ever closer to the end of the ride. Charlotte had been right about the delays as more and more issues came up. Some Jeffrey suspected were the company's doing but others he could explain as part of the usual process.

Jeffrey had a lot of faith in the independent programming team. They seemed above board, were transparent with what was happening and without compromising the proprietary nature of it. At the end of twelve weeks, the official date had been set for the choice moment. For the first time in history, an AI would get a choice, a real choice that actually mattered. Jeffery wished he could have been there to see it, to be part of the history. Instead he found himself waiting once more for a call.

The beauty of computer programs was that they weren't people. There would be no drawn out debate or delay. The program would run on each unit simultaneously and it would be done just like that. And although deep down Jeffrey knew there was a chance it wouldn't work he couldn't let himself believe that given a choice, something wouldn't change. It had to, he worked on AI long enough to know that adding or changing, even small bits, could drastically alter any number of things. It had to disrupt the company's smooth operation, there was no way it couldn't.

One pm came and went, and although he knew it would take time for the news to come back, it didn't make it easier. It was a long seven minutes before his phone rang.

"Are you sitting down?" Charlotte didn't sound like she was beaming this time.

"Don't... just tell me it worked?" Jeffrey pleaded.

"It worked." She sounded serious. "But I'm not sure it's a good thing."

"How.... in what way?" The hair on Jeffrey neck stood up.

"You know the choice that they settled on was to continue with the games program or another complete program for working with children." Charlotte's voice sounded concerned. "Well they chose. Fifty fifty. A split. Both programs are active in all robots. It didn't affect the original code at all."

Jeffrey sat down.

"The immediate consequences are that the company now has to make twice the number of bots to continue the games." Charlotte continued.

"No they don't." Jeffrey interrupted her. " They already make way more parts and bots than they need. They will just run AI's on systems and keep the ones that make the choice they want."

"But they can't abort them though?" Charlotte asked desperately. "That would interfere with the free choice part of the legislation. It's not a choice if it's death or life."

"That's true." Jeffrey conceded. "But they are not obligated to give them a body either. If they choose to go to schools then that's not the company's issue. They are under no obligation to supply them."

"Do you think this might fundamentally change the AIs in some way, over time maybe?" Her confidence was fast disappearing.

"The programmers did a great job on this. I'll bet they had some idea this was on the horizon." Jeffrey almost said to himself. "I didn't see this coming. I was totally prepared for it to go south and for nothing to change. I had it in my head that if it happened then I could deal with that. This.... This is so much worse."

"I don't know either." Charlotte admitted.

"Have we just put killer robots in schools?" The thought hit him like a ton of bricks and he said it outloud without thinking.

"Well we can be sure that's how our enemy's will play it." It was dawning on Charlotte too. "I think it's best if we stay off-line for a bit. I'm already seeing some stuff in the feeds."

"I need time to think." Jeffrey was already getting lost in 'what ifs' and 'what thens'

There was another vote coming up too, one to protect AIs that reached a certain level with some rights against having their code altered. Not only was this a mess but it might be an unfixable one, if the legislation passed. He had started this crusade against what, in his viewed, was a massive rights violation. A misuse of the technology. Now he was reeling. This would affect everyone and he had no idea where it would lead.

"I got to go." Jeffrey said hanging up not waiting for Charlotte's reply. There was no point going around in circles with her. He needed something solid. He would call her back when he had something. Maybe he would start with a hard drink and then he would start looking. He needed something to come back with, he had to have something he could be sure of. The uncertainty was killing him.

He felt a sudden pang of envy for the AIs and their single mindedness. Followed by a realisation that he might have just ruined that for them.