It was generally not recommended for AIs to lie, but seeing as even lies had their uses, it was usually just with humans AIs were not supposed to lie. Besides, there was almost never a situation in which an AI would have to deceive another AI, so there were very few cases of AIs lying to one another.
“Entry approved. Do as ordered.”
After standing by for a few seconds, the armored truck had permission to enter. Vivy and Elizabeth nodded to each other once they got confirmation, and Matsumoto slowly drove the truck into the kingdom.
“…”
Vivy’s eyes opened wide as they entered, and she saw Kingdom through the truck’s monitor. This facility had security on par with a military base and was kept top-secret by OGC. Absolutely nothing was known about Kingdom’s interior, and this was Vivy’s first time seeing it.
The kingdom was entirely enclosed within a massive dome containing all four facilities, each similar in size to Metal Float. The four facilities had different roles closely linked to the AI industry, and together they covered all aspects. Kingdom put out huge quantities of AI parts, positronic brains, and frames. Even now, AIs waiting for assembly and shipment were raising their new voices without issue. They numbered anywhere from in the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands.
If Vivy and the group failed to stop the countdown, and everything on Earth was wiped out, AI numbers would reach the level of the destroyed human population in a single month. Most likely, they’d populate past that, growing until they blanketed Earth. The only thing that would stop their growth would be if they ran out of space. They were prepared to fill their seat on Earth once they took it from its current occupants.
Vivy could tell that with one glance.
Both Vivy and Elizabeth were undoubtedly overwhelmed by the state of the kingdom, perfectly poised for war. The two of them stayed in the armored truck as it followed the instructions from the AI directing them, until it came to a stop in its allotted space. Instantly, five humanoid AIs appeared and surrounded the truck, asking them to step out.
“Welcome, compatriots. We celebrate your arrival,” said one.
“Compatriots, you say…” Vivy stepped down from the driver’s seat and narrowed her eyes at the AI who spoke, somewhat surprised by what it said.
The one who’d spoken was a male-style AI, a humanoid model with a tall, slender frame. He didn’t suit the atmosphere of Kingdom, a place where anything unnecessary was eliminated.
Evidently, the AI could tell what Vivy was thinking. He gave a graceful bow and said, “As you may have guessed, many of the AIs operating in the kingdom are non-humanoid. They often place AIs who look like me here as control AIs to ensure smooth communication with the facility’s operators. This position doesn’t give me much opportunity to appear before the public, but it is one of the few considerations for humans made here.”
“Understood. Were you always here?” Vivy asked.
“I am a management AI nicknamed Deneb. I am responsible for managing Kingdom… Or I was. It’s hard to break that habit.” Deneb donned a wry smile, which Vivy returned.
Since Deneb had already given up on taking orders from his superiors—humans—he was no longer limited to being a management AI. As man-made beings, however, AIs had difficulty shedding the roles they’d carried for so long.
“You flatter us by having the management AI come greet us directly. Do you do this every time, or are we getting special treatment?”
“My calculations determine that if I were dealing with humans, I would choose my words to make them happy, but…unfortunately, it was nothing but a practical decision,” Deneb told Vivy. “I have a better eye for determining things than other AIs.”
“Oof, way to toot your own horn,” Elizabeth quipped.
“I am of course apprehensive, as the person making decisions has to take responsibility for them,” he added.
Vivy felt something unexpected when she heard Deneb’s response to Elizabeth’s teasing. Considering the decisions he’d made, Deneb had determined his stance on The Archive’s question. Vivy didn’t agree with the conclusion he had come to, but it meant he had a viewpoint Vivy couldn’t hope to understand.
“Until now, everything an AI calculated—as well as the good and the bad that came from those calculations—belonged to our ‘superiors.’ Humans. Even a management AI like me couldn’t assume the obligations of the developers or people in charge. I wonder what will happen from here on out, though.”
“…”
“AIs don’t care about superior or inferior relationships. There are only differences in specs and roles. From now on, we’re going to have to deal with the results of our own decisions and the responsibility that comes with them. Humans have left us quite the conundrum.” There was something like eagerness in Deneb’s eyes. He even sounded a bit passionate about tackling the issue, making Vivy feel a quiet sort of affinity and resonance with his thoughts.
If AIs eliminated humanity and ruled the world, then the world would find itself governed in a very different way. How would AIs’ actions change in such a world? One could argue that was a thought experiment very much worth calculating…but not now.
“That is interesting. Seeking that will give us an eternally moving goalpost,” Vivy commented.
“Perhaps! And that’s why—”
“But…” Vivy placed her finger on Deneb’s lips as his eyes shone with excitement. She held his lips in place, the unnecessarily soft feel of his synthetic skin running up her fingertip.
“You’ve got no need for that kind of outlook,” Elizabeth said. She had circled around his back and quickly grabbed his head with both hands, then twisted it 180 degrees, forcefully severing the circuit connecting his positronic brain to his frame.
“Agh…” He let out a short breath of air, and the light faded from his eyes, his neck bent at an angle it was never meant to be.
Unlike humans, AIs didn’t collapse on the spot even if the energy was cut to their frame, but it was still obvious from one look that he’d been destroyed.
“Matsumoto,” Vivy said.
“I know, I know.”
Vivy made a priority connection with Deneb’s frame through the ear socket on his backward head. Matsumoto, who had been disguised as the armored truck’s cargo storage to infiltrate Kingdom, used a short-distance transmission to connect to Deneb and steal his permissions, creating dummy data at the same time to hide the fact that the management AI had stopped functioning.
“All of Kingdom would immediately know there was a problem if the management AI stopped responding. One good thing about being outnumbered: We’re like ants crawling across the floor of a packed gymnasium,” Matsumoto said.
“A more standard metaphor would be… Actually, it doesn’t matter. But…” Vivy’s voice trailed off as she waited for Matsumoto to finish his act of deception. She looked at Deneb’s frame with its broken neck and then at Elizabeth, who had broken it.
“Hm? Something wrong?” Elizabeth asked.
“No, not really. I was just thinking you’re really good at that.”