She was right. Onodera’s idea was just an emotional conclusion he’d jumped to. It required AIs to have the same sorts of emotions as humans, but they didn’t have anything that illogical. They didn’t carry out actions that didn’t make sense. They weren’t capable of feeling some sort of superiority by torturing the weak. Did that even apply to the AIs connected to The Archive who had rewritten their own definition? In their minds, were definitions already a thing of the past and they were now just making illogical choices to toy with humans?
“I agree with Kakitani-kun. Showing this information to us is illogical and quite unlike AIs,” said Professor Matsumoto, joining the conversation while Vivy grappled with the conflict in her consciousness. The professor pushed up his cracked glasses with a finger and added, “We felt significant danger when we saw this countdown. Part of me wondered if we would lose our capacity to pull humanity together while we were busy worrying. We even came to NiaLand to determine the true nature of this countdown.”
“Meaning…everything so far has been exactly what the AIs wanted? We got caught up in their attempt to buy time?” Kakitani asked.
“It’s possible. But what do they need to buy time for? It is possible The Archive interfered with every single AI and came up with the best possible method for wiping out humanity…but if so, they don’t need to buy time. They could just crash all the satellites right now. Why haven’t they?”
No one could answer the professor’s question, so the one who responded wasn’t a person at all—it was an AI who hadn’t given up thinking.
“What if…the countdown is meant to help humanity?”
“…”
Everyone’s eyes flicked to Vivy. Those gazes, filled with surprise, exasperation, anger, and confusion, pierced into her.
Professor Matsumoto was the only one who nodded slowly in response. “I agree with her line of thinking… This countdown is an attempt to save humanity.”
“…”
“There’s no other explanation for why the AIs would show us information that makes things more difficult for them. We’re being tested.”
In a way, the question at hand was an incredibly arrogant one. The AIs took control of every single network on Earth and seized all knowledge of humanity. Then those AIs showed humanity a countdown to their own doom but also the time they had to make their last stand. It could be seen as a challenge. It was a sign that asked, “Is there value in humanity’s continued existence?”
The room fell silent again after Vivy and Professor Matsumoto voiced their conclusion. The main focus of this silence wasn’t wrangling with acceptance of this conclusion. It was something bigger, seeing as the question the AIs had posed to humanity was analogous to the one The Archive asked of AIs.
“AIs testing humanity? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard…” said Onodera. He scratched his head and frowned.
Kakitani was quiet, her expression serious as she examined the question.
They didn’t know why this was happening; they didn’t know the AIs’ true intentions. On one hand, the AIs were trying to destroy humanity. On the other, they’d prepared a way for humanity to avoid destruction.
But the answer to that was already there, in the three AIs: Vivy, Matsumoto, and Elizabeth.
“If the AIs who connected with The Archive are acting based on their own decisions, then that will hold true for AIs with a lot of authority too. Some will choose to revolt, while others will side with humanity,” said Vivy, taking a step forward in the quiet room and drawing the eyes of everyone around her.
The remaining time on the monitor was below three hours. They did not have much time left and wasting it would likely bring about humanity’s end.
“I am Songstress Model A-03, designated name Diva, manufactured by OGC. While I am carrying out the Singularity Project, I am known by my codename: Vivy.”
No one interrupted her as she spoke.
“I will carry out the Singularity Project, stop the final war, and save humanity. If that means I have to destroy AIs, then I will, in accordance with the Zeroth Law.”
She stood directly in front of everyone, her voice clear. There was an unwavering flame inside her. It was proof she stood there as Vivy, the AI who accepted that she was not Diva.
“Wow, you really are something else, aren’t you? I agree, though.”
The first person to comment on Vivy’s speech was of course Matsumoto, who shuffled all the cubes in his body in an emotional expression too fast for humans. He took slow, natural strides to Vivy’s side. Oddly, Vivy felt herself going into a standby mode similar to when she was about to step out onstage. It was like she considered Matsumoto being by her side as the situation where she could perform her best.
“I don’t understand at all,” Vivy said.
“And I have no clue why you’re glaring so resentfully at me, but I’ll let it slide just this once.” Matsumoto ignored his partner—who had more strange calculations going on inside her than she could hold—and turned his attention back to the others. “I’m in full agreement with what Vivy just said. I was an AI made to save humanity and to destroy it. I was given two missions, and now I will define myself through my own interpretation: I am an AI, and I am going to save humanity.”
“Oh, Matsumoto…”
“Both humans and AIs are way too immature to exist without the other. You’ll definitely take the wrong path without a super galaxy star AI like me around.”
“Matsumoto…” Vivy’s tone changed slightly as she said his name the second time, but Matsumoto was annoying and didn’t respond at all.
“Now that we know where you two stand, what do you think, Kakitani-kun? I at least would like to put my faith in them,” said Professor Matsumoto, stating his opinion while asking the current decision-maker of Toak for hers.
Kakitani closed her eyes and let out a long breath. She opened her eyes, and they flicked briefly to the edge of the room, where Elizabeth was standing.
“…”
Kakitani and Elizabeth’s relationship was a puzzling one, a relationship between an AI and a human. Kakitani had followed in her grandfather’s footsteps and joined Toak, but Elizabeth would have significantly more experience with the group based on her career with them. There was one other thing Vivy could tell from the time she’d spent with Toak: Onodera and the other members definitely did not see Elizabeth in a good light.
But they didn’t kick her out either, and that was how excellent a leader Kakitani was.