CHAPTER 162: SECOND MONDAY (7)

"Yes. Tell me, do you know how to prevent a skynet situation?" asked Jack.

"Um, what?" said Madison.

"You were talking about using VR to train A.I. What happens if the A.I. achieves self awareness, but hides it from you? How can we create a safe AGI that will serve humanity, instead of usurp or replace humanity?"

"I...don’t know."

"Well, we need to figure that out. Preferably before some other company achieves AGI."

"Okay, but how? I’ve read a lot of papers and nobody seems to have a good idea how to do that. They all seem to think the right training will just magically instill the right ’values’ into the A.I. model, but security researches are finding it way too easy to trick those same supposedly secure models to say evil things."

"Do you want to be the one to solve that problem?"

If she didn’t, he’d find someone else to work on it. If she did, he’d give her some time to try to solve it.

"Sure, but I haven’t even started college!"

"So? You can do both. Once we have your data-sync device up and running, we can extend second days into third, fourth, or even fifth days. Imagine how much you can accomplish if you have five times more days per week."

She was starting to look excited.

"You’re right. I can do both."

"Just remember, you don’t need to solve it alone. Talk to Rina. And if you think there’s an expert we need, let me know. I’m sure there’s at least one expert out there that would be willing to accept a soul bond if it meant being at the forefront of A.I. research."

"What about the server farm simulation?"

"Do you have a design created? One using the new file format Rina created?"

"Not yet, no."

"Well, as soon as you do, let me know and I’ll create the simulation."

He’d granted Nora, Rina, and Madison permission to create tiny micro sized simulations because they cost almost nothing, and even millions per second would only cost one or two EP per second.

But he would need to create the mega solar/server farm she was talking about.

He knew what he wanted to accomplish, but wasn’t sure how to get there, so he decided to call a meeting. He’d share his goals and see if they had any ideas.

As soon as he was done ordering all the parts for Madison’s data-sync device, he left her office and created a conference room. They could meet in his white room, but he felt a more formal setting would set the mood and might curb more frivolous discussion.

He told all the girls about the meeting, including Isabella, and a half hour later, after they all had a chance to rinse off, the meeting started.

"So what’s this about?" asked Samantha.

"Before I received Genesis Heart, my plan was to go to college, get a degree and figure out what I want to do somewhere along the way. My goals were nebulous. Maybe try to find a cure for cancer? Maybe do something space related? Do something STEM’y? that’s about as far as I got."

"Then I received Genesis Heart, and I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do with it ever since. My goals didn’t change. I still wasn’t certain what I wanted to do. Even winning the lotter was Madison’s idea."

"Really?" asked Miranda.

"Yeah. I knew he barely had enough money to get through the first four years of college. Sure, that meant he was better off that most people our age, but I wanted things to be even better for him. Winning the lottery was the first thing I thought of when I learned about his simulation ability."

"Anyway," Jack said. "When Madison asked me about running millions of Cerebras inside a simulation, and about using them to train A.I., it got me thinking."

"Millions!" exclaimed Rina.

Nora looked excited, Samantha looked confused, and Miranda was looking at him expectantly.

"We’ll get to that later," he said, interrupting whatever Rina was about to say.

"With growing populations, dwindling food availability, A.I. disrupting job markets, even if we reach a post-scarcity world, there will be a lot of idle hands. So I’ve decided to work towards four goals."

"One, create a birth control that is cheap, convenient, available to both sexes, and has no side effects. Freedom CBG isn’t cheap or convenient, only works for women, and is only mostly side-effect free. With universal birth control, the percentage of unwanted pregnancies should drop to almost zero and will also slow down population growth."

He held up a hand, forestalling interjections from several girls.

"We can discuss each point after I’ve laid out all my goals."

They all nodded and closed their mouths.

"Two, create technologies that will improve the food situation. Improved crop yields, vat grown meat, and food replicators if we can manage it. I also want to look at ways to recycle all waste back into usable raw materials. Anything that reduces resource competition will reduce the risk of war."

"Three, since companies are rushing headlong towards AGI, I want to get ahead of them and create safe AGI before some idiot unleashes a skynet on us. And after AGI, robots. I believe there must be a way to introduce robots in such a way that it doesn’t cause massive unemployment."

"And four, virtual reality. If we create truly immersive VR, we can create an environment where people can entertain themselves and make money doing virtual jobs. If people don’t need to work, or only work a few hours a week, they’ll need something to do. I think VR can also be used for education and innovation."

"And that’s the gist of it. Let’s start with item one, birth control. Thoughts?"

"What about people that don’t believe in birth control?" asked Miranda. "Aren’t there religions that frown on it? If they’re the only ones not using it, then they’ll just keep on popping out babies and eventually tilt the cultural balance in their favor."

"Maybe," said Nora. "It’s also possible that many people would choose not to use it for other reasons. I think you would need to achieve something like 80% adoption rate for it to have the degree of effect Jack wants."

"You could just release it like a virus," said Rina. "If it’s self-replicating and has no side-effects, you could just release it into the world and withing a few weeks, everyone would have it."

"Um, wouldn’t that cause the extinction of the human race?" asked Samantha.