Episode 12

D-4

Isis and I were still playing Go. To be honest, I wasn’t that interested in Go, but I hadn’t found anything more interesting yet.

However, the way we played had changed a bit; Go itself had become a means, not an end.

We placed stones and talked without any time limit.

Asking something, placing a stone. Answering something, placing a stone.

The game that started after lunch would end around dinner time, and Isis and I would talk about various topics.

“I’m curious about the history of AI.”

I placed a black stone and brought up the topic.

Isis looked at me. I didn’t know if her gray eyes reflected my face or my inner thoughts, but Isis stared at me for a moment.

“That’s a broad topic. Should I tell you about the general development of AI?”

A white stone is placed. I briefly turned my eyes away from the Go board decorated with horizontal and vertical lines and looked out the window.

It was definitely a scenery that used to give a sense of openness, but after realizing it was fake, I felt more and more suffocated.

I want to feel the cool breeze. I want to hear the sound of the bushes moving.

I want to fill my lungs with the somewhat stuffy but still fresh air, exhale it, and walk around outside.

Temperature, humidity, illuminance…

All the conditions are perfectly met in this hospital room, but it’s just a prison to me.

[You’re not doing anything particularly harmful, can’t you just live here?]

The weak part of me coaxes me to compromise.

Honestly, the Ark (Isis) I’ve experienced so far seems to be in the BEST3 of the beings I’ve met while traveling through dimensions who seem harmless.

1st place is Lee Mina

2nd place is Kim Sung-ah

Now, Isis has pushed Maria out and taken 3rd place.

Namgung Soyou? I’m sorry to Master, but she’s not a harmless being… She’ll admit it herself.

Of course, it depends on what happens when she finds out that I know Isis = Ark.

I placed a stone again and said.

“How about the birth and development of the Ark?”

“I didn’t know you were interested in the Ark.”

Tak, another Go stone is placed. While I was fiddling with the Go stones, Isis, who had finished cleaning up, opened her mouth.

The beginning of the Ark was a Go program created by a company.

The name of the Go program that defeated the greatest professional Go player of the time was Ark.

With the success of Ark, investments in machine learning and AI technology were made aggressively.

It was a field that had been invested in as a promising technology from the beginning, but after its potential became visible to the general public, its development gained momentum.

The company that created Ark tried to replicate Ark and build a new type of program.

A program to support the developing humanity. That was the birth of the Ark.

The very first task assigned to the Ark was to maintain the environment of a small laboratory at a certain level.

The Ark succeeded in maintaining the environment of a laboratory with laboratory mice, and the project leaders entrusted the Ark with a more complex space.

From a small laboratory to a research institute, from a research institute to a research complex, from a research complex to a district.

The area in charge of the Ark gradually increased.

As the area in charge expanded, there was also a problem of load on the calculation, but the problem could be solved by applying the superconductor that was discovered just in time.

Around that time, the engineer who created the Ark retired and another engineer participated as a successor.

And as time passed, that engineer retired, and a completely new team was formed.

Engineers participate, retire,

The direction of the program is changed.

Teams are formed, teams are changed,

Time passes, and the program’s specifications are added.

After many years, the Ark was in charge of a city.

D-2. Night.

After eating dinner and digesting, Isis turned off the lights in the hospital room, saying it was time to sleep.

The dimming light illuminated the space subtly without hurting the eyes.

Before leaving, Isis placed something next to the bed.

A long stick-like thing made a metallic sound.

“This is?”

I knew what it was, but I asked Isis again.

“This is the self-defense weapon you asked for. You’ll be going outside the day after tomorrow.”

“Finally going out.”

I said it like I was in elementary school waiting for a picnic.

“Yes, it will be a short walk. Then have a good night.”

Isis poured cold water on me.

After Isis left, I counted to 120 in my head.

My eyes, accustomed to the darkness, distinguish what is placed next to the bed.

It’s a metal stick that looks like a large-sized chopstick.

It’s not as sharp as a thorn, but it’s not blunt either.

I’m lucky.

D-DAY. Morning.

When is the Ark’s security the weakest?

This was the part I thought about the most while being trapped in the hospital room for a long time.

A way to escape from the Ark.

To derive that method, two assumptions are required.

One is that the Ark has no intention of harming me at all, and

The other is that the Ark’s goal of going out is for my mental health.

I think the first assumption is somewhat true.

If it had intended to harm me, it could have restrained me from the moment I lost consciousness.

There’s no reason to bother preparing a hospital room and taking care of me.

This is especially true for rationally thinking AIs.

The second assumption follows from the first assumption.

I don’t know the exact reason, but the Ark values my safety.

Safety includes my health.

That’s why I keep complaining about discomfort.

I want to go out, I threaten Isis that I’ll go crazy if I can’t go out.

There is something to be gained through this bluffing.

“There aren’t many Drones. You can walk along that road.”

When I was traveling through Aaru with NB, I never walked on the main road.

I always wandered around alleys, and when it wasn’t possible, I had to crawl through piles of garbage.

However, I could be sure as I walked on the noticeably small number of Drones and the clean road as if it had been manipulated without any tension.

[The Ark doesn’t want me to be stressed.]

I came outside to relieve my stress, but the Ark made the judgment to remove the Drones altogether because it didn’t want me to be stressed by the Drones.

Back again….

When is the Ark’s security the weakest?

“This way….”

I stab the metal stick into Isis’s head as she turns to look at me.

The metal stick is inserted into the seam where the neck and head are attached.

“Why are you attacking me?”

Isis, whose neck is pierced, asks me in a monotone voice.

It is when an unforeseen situation occurs.

The 78th move.

Like the human move that brought one victory from the Go program Ark.