Today's #flashfiction Over-Learning AI

“Not tonight honey, I have a headache.”

Marie Antoinette* #quote

Tonight the stars fall asleep to a lullaby sung by the moon. Anyway onto the flash fiction!

Over-Learning AI

       The year was 2050, and The President of the United States, along with other high ranking officials and generals look the leader of an artificial intelligence project.

      “So the generals tell me that you've managed to nearly replicate the human brain and create a learning intelligence? Is this true? Do we finally have the technology we need to make a trainable super machine soldier?” The President looked fancy in his suit just like the scientist in his. However the scientist's suit had sweat showing through it. The middle aged scientist normally spoke well in front of others and held great charisma. People smiled and said “Good morning Mr. Evermore”. But this charisma vanished when the scientist merely showed himself as a nervous mess with a comb over.

      “Yes Mr. President we did create a learning artificial intelligence.” Mr. Evermore answered the question while tapping the table anxiously.

One of the generals then said, “So we have a trainable artificial intelligence at last.”

Mr. Evermore then awkwardly added, “Actually, um, it might not be the best for that. But it is very good at learning.”

       The general then grew angry, but kept an air of professionalism. “What do you mean it's not the best for that?”

       The scientist then said, “Well, technically you asked us to make a learning artificial intelligence that understands things the way humans do. However you didn't really tell us it had to do anything with what it learned.”

        The President leaned a little over the table, remembering how much the program cost. “What exactly do you mean?”

         Mr. Evermore then imagined himself getting out of his chair and running out of the room before speaking again. “You see, um, it kinda, just asks questions all day. It does learn things like a human...but it can't act like a human. That didn't fit in the budget and you didn't tell us to do it in the contract so we left that feature out.” Fortunately for Mr. Evermore he didn't do anything illegal. Him and his team technically did what they were paid for. Unfortunately for the military they were now stuck with the three year old that keeps asking “why?”. Maybe if they spend more money they can get an upgrade to a machine that does something.