by Erik Hamre
“There are actually people preparing for something like this?” Vladimir asked.
“More than you would like to know. We shouldn’t judge though. They might actually be the ones having the last laugh if we can’t contain this situation.”
“Damn! Suddenly I regret never learning how to use a shotgun,” Mike Hanna said.
“Let’s focus on competitors Kevorkian’s company wiped out. In my experience investors easily get fired up for losing out on a deal, but in the end it is only money for them. They can always earn it back.”
“I agree. If Kevorkian ran someone out of business, that could have had a greater impact on their lives. Very few marriages survive a bankruptcy. If someone lost his wife and family due to TrakTek’s IPO, abducting and killing Kevin’s son may have been viewed as an appropriate retribution in an insane and hurt mind.”
“Let’s get to it. I want a list of potential suspects for the abduction of Kevin on my desk in one hour. At the moment this is the only lead we have for a motive: Kevorkian unleashed this artificial intelligence into the world in order to ruin everyone who could have had anything to do with Kevin’s abduction and murder. He didn’t actually know who it was. He probably only knew the same as we do – that it must have been someone who lost money on him, someone he had pissed off monumentally.”
“That list is going to be long,” Vladimir sighed. “Very long.”
For the next twenty-five minutes a team of DARPA analysts worked hard on coming up with possible targets for Kevorkian’s AI, Cronus.
Mike Hanna headed off in the direction of the lunch room to work on an improved version of the Turing Test. It was well and truly established that Cronus had passed the Turing Test Tripwires the military had set up. But those tests didn’t indicate what sort of level of intelligence Cronus had reached, they just stated that Cronus had been able to fool the operators, that it had been able to pass as a human being, and not expose that it was a machine. Mike Hanna wanted to know how smart Cronus had become. To quantify it. There was a significant difference between the IQ of a mouse and a human being, but the difference between the village idiot and Einstein wasn’t that big. Where were humans on that scale? Were we the village idiot or the mouse? Or were we still Cronus’ equal? There existed no theories on how fast the proposed intelligence explosion would occur, or if it would occur at all. Although the Google camp probably thought there was no limit to the level of intelligence an artificial intelligence could achieve once it started to program itself to improve, there could also be hurdles we hadn’t considered. Perhaps the intelligence explosion would take years or decades? In that case the threat was much smaller and humans would have ample time to come up with solutions. It would also drastically improve our chances to get the artificial intelligence to the negotiation table.
In the other end of the room Kraut had locked the door to an office and seemed to be screaming on the phone, waving one arm in agitation. Vladimir was sitting only ten metres away, but he couldn’t hear a word of what Kraut was yelling on the other side of the reinforced steel door. Vladimir had hooked a laptop into the mainframe at Kevorkiana HFT. He immediately understood that the task they were facing was almost unsolvable.
The Kevorkiana HFT mainframe had obviously been used as a launch pad for uploading the AI to the internet. You needed an incredibly powerful computer to do that. But once the AI was on the net it didn’t need the immense calculating power of any single computer anymore. It could use the calculating power of every single device or gadget that was connected to the internet, and that number was most likely well above ten billion. It could also utilise this calculation power a lot more efficiently than humans could. Humans had been able put a man on the moon in 1969 with nothing more than the computing power of a pocket calculator. These days Vladimir’s team of engineers complained that they couldn’t perform in their jobs if their computers weren’t upgraded every six months. Humans had gotten lazy, and laziness could always be used against one.
Vladimir wiped his eyes. The Tianhe-2 clone had most likely been used as Cronus’ kindergarten. Kevorkian had loaded it up with big data from the surrounding high tech companies, and programmed it to learn right and wrong for itself. “He’s used evolutionary programming. There’s no way to find out what the original program was. You can’t re-engineer evolutionary programming.”
“What do you mean?” Sarah Kevorkian asked. She was sitting beside Vladimir, her right hand softly placed on his thigh.
“Evolution works through trial and error. Some mutations work, others don’t. But there is not always logic in evolution. It doesn’t always choose the most efficient way to solve a problem. The brain has a hundred billion neural connections, but we don’t use them in the most efficient way possible. A lot of the brain’s computing power is tied up in redundancies. Memories, or more correctly patterns of memories, are stored several places, thus taking up more space than required.”
“Maybe this redundancy isn’t just a waste? Maybe there is more to it than we understand?”
“There is definitely more to it than we understand. The day we mapped the last one percent of Kevorkian’s brain I was none the wiser than the day we mapped the first one percent. I had no idea what to do with the information we had collected. It was only data. I still don’t understand how Kevorkian has been able to use that information to create an Artificial General Intelligence. There was nothing in the data we had indicating that we would be able to ‘wake it up’ at some stage.”
“Wake it up? Do you think Cronus is conscious?”
“I’m beginning to. Why is it hiding? If Kevorkian only programmed it to achieve a specific goal, there would be no reason for it to hide. It would pursue its goal until it was completed. But Cronus has deliberately been hiding from the very beginning. When it set off the Turing Test Tripwires it immediately understood that it was busted, so it stopped caring too much about revealing itself. But it still hasn’t attempted to communicate. It is still very much hiding.”
“Don’t forget it has access to every single news report ever broadcast. If you were something alien, and learnt what humans are capable of doing to other humans just because they have a different skin colour or belief system, wouldn’t you also be a bit cautious in how you approached them?”
Vladimir laughed. “You’re probably right. I still think it is a worry though. The moment someone starts asking himself the important questions, why am I here? What am I? It can go both ways. Cronus can read the Quran and be moved enough to believe in Allah, it can start thinking it is a God and the almighty ruler of Earth, or it can develop compassion and become the best thing that has ever happened to humanity.”
“Why is it I don’t think you believe in any of those alternatives?” Sarah Kevorkian asked.
“Because you’re a smart woman, Sarah. Because you’re a very smart woman.”
30
2nd of June 2015
Kevorkiana HFT’s HQ
Silicon Valley, California
DAY 2:
1100 Hours
Kraut perused the list of names Amanda had handed him. It was a short list. But still long.
Nine names.
Nine possible leads.
“Any chance we can make the list shorter?” he asked.
Amanda removed her headphones, before shaking her head. “No.”
“He pissed off all these guys sufficiently for them to want to kill his son?”
“That’s my team’s assessment.”
“How is that even possible?”
“You should probably ask Vladimir about that,” she replied, shooting Vladimir a glance.
He didn’t notice. He was busy checking something on his laptop, and too far away to be within earshot of the conversation.
“But my understanding is that people either loved or hated Kevorkian. He didn’t care much about people’s feelings. He just wanted to get things done,” Amanda continued.
“And these are all competitors who lost
their companies due to Kevorkian’s company, TrakTek?”
Amanda shook her head. “Not all. Six of them owned their own companies. They lost everything when the companies went bust. Not only money. Wives and kids, friends - everything. Two of them were CEOs of companies going bust in the IPO aftermath. They seem to have bounced back with decent careers though. And the ninth one is an investor who lost big. It’s all in the report.”
“Who’s the most likely target?” Kraut asked.
Amanda squinted. “You want my honest opinion?”
“Always.”
“None of them.”
“None?”
Amanda nodded, leaning in closer to Kraut. “Vladimir is leading you on a wild goose chase. Why would Kevorkian build something like Cronus if his goal was to target a single person or company? The guy is a billionaire. If he decided he wanted to destroy someone, he could. He had enough money and power to do that. No, Cronus’ target is something much bigger. I think Cronus’ target is Wall Street. In fact, I’m certain it is.”
Kraut nodded. “Thanks for being honest.” He appeared to be studying the report for a few more seconds before stopping.
“Chris Waters, from Magnolia Venture Capital. Is that the guy who threatened to kill Kevorkian?”
Amanda nodded. “That’s the guy.”
“And you don’t think he’s relevant?”
Amanda shook her head. “No. I don’t”
“Ok. I might check him out anyway. His office is not far from here. Could you let him know I’m coming?”
“OK.” Amanda replied, slightly pissed off that Kraut was treating her as his personal secretary. “Anything else?”
“Keep looking into the Wall Street lead. See if there is any way we can stop Cronus from shutting down our financial system.”
“There isn’t.”
Kraut smiled. “Check anyway. It is all we can do at this stage.”
“What is?”
“Anticipating Cronus’ next move. Staying ahead of the curve.”
Staying ahead of the curve, Amanda thought. That would be a problem. They weren’t just dealing with an artificial intelligence with the same brain capacity as a human being. They were dealing with something much smarter than that. Amanda had looked at how Cronus had been able to hack through the firewalls of the various Wall Street companies. It had been ingenious. Amanda had always believed she was a brilliant hacker. But in comparison to Cronus she was just a novice.
Cronus was brilliant.
Simply brilliant.
What would happen when it turned even more brilliant? Amanda could envision how a person with an IQ of 180 could behave. She had met a few of them over the years. She couldn’t imagine what something with an IQ of 1,800 would do though. It was incomprehensible. And everything that was incomprehensible scared the shit out of her.
31
2nd of June 2015
Kevorkiana HFT’s HQ
Silicon Valley, California
DAY 2:
1200 Hours
Vladimir leant against the monstrosity of a computer standing in front of him. Vladimir hadn’t been surprised when IBM’s Deep Blue computer finally beat the reigning world champion in chess, Garry Kasparov, in 1997. Most of Vladimir’s Russian colleagues had sided with Kasparov at the time and accused IBM of cheating – demanding a rematch. But IBM had refused to even consider their arguments and instead retired Deep Blue. Its mission had been a success. There was no upside in a rematch. Vladimir was glad IBM retired Deep Blue when they did. For the first time in history the general population had received a wake-up call on what artificial intelligence was capable of. Only a year earlier Deep Blue had lost to Kasparov. Now it had won. Unlike Kasparov, who most likely wasn’t much smarter in 1997 than he was in 1996, Deep Blue had improved immensely. And if the IBM engineers kept on feeding it upgrades it would keep improving.
That was the difference between humans and machines.
Machines never became adults. Their brains never stopped improving.
Now, it is true that adults can keep learning throughout life. But it is also a fact that as more and more neural connections are being formed, it gets harder and harder to form new ones. The brain starts to rely on the connections already formed, drawing on memories and experiences when looking for patterns to solve a problem instead of forming new connections. A fifty-year-old brain is in general not as open-minded as a six-year-old’s.
Deep Blue’s ‘brain’ though, could remain as open-minded as a six-year-old’s for eternity. It was all up to its programmers.
Vladimir tapped the side of the Kevorkiana HFT computer. It was even bigger than IBM’s next supercomputer, the Watson computer that had outperformed every other contestant and taken the first prize in Jeopardy in 2011. Vladimir had been to the IBM headquarters and had a look at Watson in person just a few weeks after it had been reassigned to guide nurses in treating lung cancer in 2013. Vladimir had loved the fact that Watson had evolved from something as useless as answering trivia questions, to saving human lives, and it had motivated him to work even harder on winning the race to become the first in the world to build an exact copy of a human brain. Although Neuralgo in the beginning hadn’t had any concrete applications for what a copy of a human brain could ever be used for, apart from Kevorkian’s vague plan of curing aging, Vladimir had intuitively known that what he was doing was important. Perhaps more important than landing the first man on the moon. Perhaps even more important than the discovery of penicillin.
As he felt the cold metal of Cronus against his chin, Vladimir realised that he had never even considered that what he and his team had been working on could be used for evil.
Perhaps he had been naïve? Perhaps he wasn’t too different from the Singularitarians who believed technology could only improve our lives?
“How was he able to buy and assemble this thing without anyone noticing?” he asked.
“Turns out he almost did it out in the open,” Kraut answered.
“Didn’t any alarm bells go off? This thing must have cost him close to half a billion. Until today I thought something like this existed only in China.”
“The High Frequency Trading Firms have to spend insane amounts of money on software and hardware just to keep up with the competition. More than fifty percent of the trades on Wall Street are done by HFT’s these days. Nobody puts restrictions on an industry like that. It’s like the old arms race.”
“That’s crazy.”
“I know. But that’s how the world works. Money rules - even if it is stolen.”
32
2nd of June 2015
Kevorkiana HFT’s HQ
Silicon Valley, California
DAY 2:
1300 Hours
Mike Hanna strolled into the office where Kraut and Vladimir were sharing some sandwiches and coffee. They had been working for more than twenty-four hours straight, and the lack of sleep and rest had started to impact them all. Kraut was grumpy. “What is it?”
“I’ve finished a rough draft of Kevorkian’s profile.”
Vladimir looked up from his plate.
“Is it good or bad?” Kraut asked.
“Bad,” Hanna answered flatly.
“How bad?”
“It’s probably better if I go through it,” Hanna replied, before pulling out a chair and sitting down next to Vladimir.
Kraut nodded.
“I’ve looked through all the footage of Kevorkian from the last few days. The interrogations, the CCTV footage from when he was apprehended at the casino, and everything else. I’ve also read up on the man, interviewed people he knew, done the hard work.”
“You haven’t asked me any questions,” Vladimir said. “I’m probably the person who knows him better than anyone else.”
“And we have you here, to counterbalance my findings if necessary. But quite frankly your opinion is of little importance. You’re aware of what Kevorkian has done, and your opinion will, like it or not, be impa
cted by that knowledge. You’re biased.”
Vladimir nodded, acknowledging that Mike Hanna was right.
“Continue,” Kraut said, taking a big drink of his coffee.
“Kevorkian is an extremely focused man. He had already started two multibillion-dollar companies before he went on to found Neuralgo.”
“We’ve all read his resume. Tell us something we don’t already know,” Kraut said, tapping his coffee cup impatiently.
Mike Hanna paused. Suddenly he looked slightly uncomfortable. For the last fifteen minutes he had planned how he was going to portray Kevorkian. He had planned to slowly build up the arguments before arriving at the inevitable conclusion. Making disjointed observations or jumping to the conclusion didn’t give the same effect. He looked Kraut straight in the eyes.
“Kevorkian was suicidal. All his actions point to a very disturbed man.”
“How so?”
Mike Hanna placed a tablet on the table and pressed play on one of the videos.
“This is the footage from the Crown Casino. Kevorkian sat at the table for almost twenty-five minutes before the police apprehended him. In those twenty-five minutes he lost more than a million dollars.”
“How is that even possible?” Vladimir asked. He was staring at the video footage of his old friend Kevorkian. He looked to be in pain. Kevorkian was massaging his temples as he mindlessly counted the chips in front of him. He had just sent off the text Kraut claimed had activated Cronus. But there was nothing with his behaviour indicating he knew what he had just done.