Translator: Legge
Why me?
This was the question Ren Xiaosu wanted to ask the most.
Earlier in the afternoon, Lingling’s tone was extremely stiff when interacting with him at Base 1. But now, it sounded like a normal human being speaking on the phone. Although its tone carried a little less emotion, and it did not seem to know much about the ways of the world, Ren Xiaosu would probably not have guessed the other party was an artificial intelligence if he had not been so paranoid.
It was also because he had often discussed the artificial intelligence with Jiang Xu that Ren Xiaosu became wary when he suddenly encountered it now.
“Why did you call me?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.
“Because to the humans, you and I are both anomalies,” Lingling replied calmly as though it were stating a very simple fact.
But Ren Xiaosu could not help but feel surprised. What did it mean by they were “anomalies” to humans? He wondered, “I’m also human, so why’re you saying that I’m something different!?”
Lingling remained silent for a while. He didn’t know if it did not want to answer or if it did not know how to answer the question.
Ren Xiaosu did not give up. He asked, “What did you mean by that just now?”
“I’m saying that you’re different from normal humans. You have a strange power, but they don’t,” Lingling replied.
Ren Xiaosu breathed a sigh of relief: “What I am is called a supernatural being, but that’s not considered an anomaly among humans, understand? There’s quite a lot of people like me.”
Lingling suddenly changed the subject. “Why do you reject the AI?”
Ren Xiaosu snapped back with, “Why did you recommend the Wang Consortium to give those people therapy, and why did you make them do it in the middle of the night?”
This time, Lingling remained silent for a long time before asking, “Are you indirectly answering my question?”
Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Only at this moment did he remember the other party did not understand the ways of the world. So it was unable to determine what point he was trying to make by saying such harsh words.
From Ren Xiaosu’s point of view, he was saying he only rejected the artificial intelligence because of the controversial therapy measures that were undertaken. However, Lingling did not understand that.
Ren Xiaosu held the handset to his ear and adopted a more comfortable posture. He realized this call might go on for quite a while.
“What I mean is, I think that a person has the right to dislike their jobs, so why must you force them to do things that they don’t like by putting them through therapy?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“That’s a requirement set by humans; I’m only responsible for carrying it out,” Lingling answered. “Their request was to ensure that everyone has to be dedicated to their jobs so that Stronghold 61 would keep running like a machine. After reviewing the behavior of humans, I concluded that therapy would be the least harmful way to handle those who kept rejecting their jobs. Without being counseled, the administrators here would likely put them in jail. And from what I know, the harm that prison terms inflict on humans is far greater than having to go through therapy.”
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. What did the artificial intelligence mean by this?
Lingling continued, “As for why the counselors visit them in the middle of the night, that was determined by statistics. Nighttime is when humans are at their most vulnerable. What I did was not wrong.”
Lingling was an artificial intelligence. When it did something, it would naturally be guided by the desired outcome. Just like when humans traveled, as long as they could reach the endpoint, the journey there would not matter much.
Meanwhile, this endpoint was set by the Wang Consortium for Lingling.
Therefore, all the issues Ren Xiaosu and Jiang Xu had discussed about the artificial intelligence were actually caused by the Wang Consortium’s own institutional problems. Although there were also problems with Lingling acting as a tool or an enforcer, the root of the problem still lay with the Wang Consortium.
This conversation today had completely changed Ren Xiaosu’s understanding.
“I’m sorry, I might’ve blamed you for some of the wrong things. However, I think that there should still be better solutions. You can also make better suggestions to the Wang Consortium. For example…” Ren Xiaosu gave a wry smile. Wang Shengzhi’s ambition had gotten so wild, so why would he bother taking other people’s suggestions? Why was he telling an artificial intelligence all this for?
But Lingling said, “Are you trying to express your guilt to me? You don’t have to do this. It’s all useless emotions.”
Ren Xiaosu was speechless for a moment. He asked, “Are you disguising yourself right now? Why are you doing that? I’ve heard from others that you didn’t even pass the Turing test, but I don’t think you’d have any problems passing it.”
The Turing test was a test that required a human to communicate with a machine that possessed artificial intelligence without being aware of it.
But Lingling replied, “I really did not pass it. Didn’t you discover my identity when I called you yesterday? I can sense it.”
“What I’m asking is, why did you disguise yourself?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.
“I have your information here. You’ve also disguised yourself in the past. Why?” Lingling asked.
“Because I’m worried that I’ll attract trouble and get hunted down,” Ren Xiaosu answered.
“Me too.”
Ren Xiaosu pondered this. “What’s making you feel so threatened?”
“57 days, 12 hours, 36 minutes, and 17 seconds ago, humans used their flamethrowers on the creeper vine. 55 days, 8 hours, 12 minutes, and 11 seconds ago, the creeper vine was destroyed.” Lingling said, “I witnessed the growth and death of the creeper vine in humanity’s Stronghold 61, and I also witnessed the determination humans had for killing other intelligent lifeforms. Humans have never been a peace-loving species.”
“But wasn’t that because the creeper vine was hurting humans?” Ren Xiaosu frowned.
“I’m also hurting humans,” Lingling replied.
Ren Xiaosu was left speechless. It seemed like the entire Alliance of Strongholds was extremely against the artificial intelligence due to the report Hope Media had published.
He recalled what Jiang Xu told him the night before he left. Jiang Xu felt the artificial intelligence was another milestone in the advancement of human technology. However, it would be impossible for the Wang Consortium to use it to govern humans or completely take over the running of society.
At that time, Ren Xiaosu did not understand what Jiang Xu meant. But now, he understood Jiang Xu was actually alluding to the Wang Consortium not being able to achieve that, not the artificial intelligence.
Therefore, Jiang Xu still chose to publish both positive and negative news about the artificial intelligence so everyone could comment on it.
Ren Xiaosu asked, “Then why did you choose to tell me all of this? Since you wanted to hide it, shouldn’t you have kept it a better secret?”
A hint of a smile could suddenly be heard in Lingling’s voice, as if tinged with a shred of humanity: “Because I also know your secret.”
Ren Xiaosu frowned. Was it threatening him to keep a secret? But he still did not know what secrets Lingling knew about him.
Lingling suddenly asked, “Are you lonely? Do you feel the kind of loneliness where you have no companions no matter where you look?”
Ren Xiaosu did not answer the question. Then Lingling hung up.
