315 Vol. 6 pt. 1 (1/2)
Ocean waves lazily rock the hull of the ship as a gentle breeze flutters its sails.
It is a calm, sunny day – a perfect day for sailing, swimming, fishing, or anything else related to the vast ocean surrounding the vessel.
However, only one of those activities really matters.
Fishing.
With a clear sky, the sun's rays have no difficulty in penetrating the calm waters to reveal the sight of the fish foolish enough to bite the trapped bait.
The fish thrashes around, trying to break free from the hook that has trapped it, but its fate is already sealed.
For it has been caught by a wolf.
Wolves might not be known for fishing, but this wolf in particular has his hungry, determined eyes set on the struggling fish.
The fish is close enough to the surface of the water now that it can even see the sinister smile made of the wolf's sharp teeth – the teeth that wish to tear into its flesh.
Finally, the fish gets pulled up and out of the water with a single, powerful tug!
The fish, pulled by the line, comes flying toward the wolf ready to secure his catch.
But this fish is not yet ready to surrender its life.
Freed of the hook by the tug that yanked it out of the water, the fish twists its body around midair and swings its wide tail directly into the wolf's face!
Now is the fish's only opportunity to escape.
It has been freed, it attacked and stunned the wolf, and…
And it has fallen onto the wooden deck of the boat.
And now there is a dog made out of rock pinning it down with one of her paws.
”You got slapped,” Serra says. ”Again.”
”Seriously… that's the fifth time today,” Fenrir sighs. ”King Cat wasn't kidding when he said that the fish at this reef keep fighting even out of the water.”
He looks down at the fish still trying to get out from underneath Rock's paw.
”We only need one more. Then we can get back and get our reward,” Fenrir says.
”I want a new hat,” Serra says. ”A big pirate hat.”
”Want an eyepatch while you're at it?”
Serra stares at Fenrir for a few moments before answering, ”No.”
”How come?”
”Because then I can only look at your butt with one eye.”
Fenrir's tail positions itself in a way so that it completely covers his rear from his girlfriend's lustful eyes.
”I think you need two eyepatches,” he says.
”I want x-ray vision. Then I can see through your clothes. And Cass Cass's clothes. And Nell Nell's clothes. And Azawaza's clothes.”
”How about you get fish-finding vision?”
”Don't need that to find Nell.”
”She's a serpent, not a fish.”
”A fishy serpent.”
”I don't know how she'd feel being called fishy. Actually… never mind. She'd probably love it.”
”Let's call her Fishy when we get back.”
”No.”
”Please? I want to see her reaction.”
”I can't just replace her name with 'Fishy.' I'd probably laugh or stutter.”
”I'll owe you over nine thousand sexual favors.”
”Owing sexual favors doesn't do anything for me when you're already the perverted equivalent of a black hole. A huge pervert in a small body.”
”I'm bite-sized.”
”I'm surprised you didn't say suck-sized.”
”You're suck-sized,” she says, staring at his crotch.
”Are you talking to me or—”
”Him.”
”I figured as much.”
”He needs a name.”
”How about he doesn't need a name.”
”He doesn't need a name is a boring name. Let's name him Fluffles.”
”Absolutely not.”
”Little Fenny.”
”Absolutely not version two.”
”Ryoutock.”
”Absolutely not version two-point-two.”
”Master.”
”Alright, that one is kind of hot.”
”Master Helicopter.”
”Why… why the helicopter part?”
”Because they can be spun like helicopters.”
”I – I… I mean…”
”Spinny boi.”
”You're having way too much fun trying to name it. What if I tried naming you?” he asks, looking at her chest. ”Actually… naming Cass or Aza would be easier there.”
”I only have hills. They have mountains. More reference opportunities.”
”There are some named hills… probably.”
”We could name your butt after mountains, too.”
”He-hey now, what's that supposed to mean?”
”It means you have a nice butt.”
”Is that why you always want to walk behind me?”
”Yeah.”
”I thought it was because of the tail…”
”It is because of your tail.”
”I mean the fluffy one.”
”Oh. That's a bonus.”
”Wait, is this also why you've been the big spoon more lately?”
”Yeah. I get to touch it a lot when you're asleep.”
”I mean… I know I can't complain since I do the same with Nell and Cass.”
Serra lights up as if she just had a brilliant idea.
”What?” Fenrir asks.
”I want to sleep between them and be the little spoon and have their boobs against the sides of my head and their legs on me,” Serra explains.
”Well, at least your fantasies are way more realistic than Nell's.”
”It'll be a sandwich. I'll be the meat to their buns.”
”That makes you sound like a futa.”
”I wish,” Serra says with a sigh.
”I don't wish. I think you're perfect how you are.”
”Thanks. I think your butt is perfect, too.”
”Can we not go back to that?”
”Okay. We'll go back to Master Helicopter.”
”Please drop the helicopter part.”
”But I'm not holding a helicopter part.”
”I – wait.”
Serra snerks.
”I'm going back to fishing,” Fenrir says with a sigh.
”Yeah. Turn back around.”
Fenrir raises an eyebrow at her before making sure to keep his tail as close to his rear as he can get it to stay, guarding it from Serra's eyes before he turns around and attaches more bait to Rod's hook.
Meanwhile, Rock has already taken the latest fish that they caught over to the barrel with the rest of the catches.
She might not be able to do any fishing herself, but she can still help out with the logistics of things.
And by being a good girl.
But that is as simple as existing in the first place.
”Anyways, I don't really know how to feel about that interview that the game's overseer did. That was… something,” Fenrir says.
Just a day prior, while eating leftover pizza in real life with his girlfriends, there was the first ever live interview with an artificial intelligence.
Not just any artificial intelligence.
Fantasy Tales Online's artificial intelligence.
And perhaps more surprising than anything else…
”They officially declared her a real artificial intelligence,” Fenrir recaps.
”What's the difference?” Serra asks.
After all, she couldn't hear the broadcast last night and didn't care enough to read the subtitles at the time.
”Well, tons of programs have been called artificial intelligences before. The term has been used since games at the start of the century when the 'artificial intelligences' back then couldn't even do a fragment of a fragment of what they can do now. But anyways, they were never considered real artificial intelligences. Then, no matter how much 'learning' they could do, the bar kept on getting raised by AI researchers for what would count as a 'real' AI. First it was as simple as fooling somebody into thinking they're talking to a human. The Turing test, basically. Then there were a few other tests, then more tests, and before long, they were – wait… there! Shit. I was too quick.”
”I'm used to it.”
”I'm talking about the fish that just got away.”
”I'm not.”
Fenrir looks over at her smirking at him.
”Anyways,” he continues, ”then they started defining artificial intelligence as self-aware… but even that wasn't good enough. Then they started defining artificial intelligence as being capable of learning anything on their own, being able to perform experiments and research, having self-awareness, and being smarter than humans. Like, smarter as in being able to progress science with a massive leap smart.”
Serra yawns while he continues nerding out.
”To the average person, we've had 'real' AI for years now. That's why we see groups fighting for AI rights and all that. They believe that if an AI is self-aware and capable of emulating emotions then it deserves rights. Even most lawmakers and politicians refer to them as true AIs. But, the actual scientists and specialists in that field have never called a single AI before a true AI… until a couple of days ago. They're saying we've officially entered a new age of human history now.”
Fenrir looks over at her and finally notices her yawning.
”What's the difference between a real AI and the virtual assistants? And NPCs?” Serra asks after noticing his ears and tail droop.
She has been listening to everything that he's had to say thus far.
She's just also pretty sleepy.
More importantly, his tail and ears have perked back up.
”Well, according to the scientists, the NPCs and virtual assistants – pretty much all of the AI as we know them, aren't real AIs and that they can't really feel emotion. They say that the other attempts at AI are only pretending to be 'smart' and 'emotional' because they're programmed to. They are programmed to become self-aware, to teach themselves, to emulate emotions. But, apparently, this first real AI wasn't created to do any of that.”
Another fish bites Fenrir's line, taking his attention away from the discussion for a few minutes so that he can focus on fishing.
Unfortunately, a bigger fish comes along to steal the fish that he hooked.
He puts more bait on the hook and casts again.
”Alright,” Fenrir says. ”So, the first real AI – the overseer of this game, was confirmed to be created without being encouraged to do any of that, basically. If you think of most AIs as being programs with tools and assigned jobs, then the overseer was designed without an assigned job, no tools, and – well, nothing other than... existence.”
”You really like this stuff,” Serra says.
”I mean, how can you not be excited about what's being called the biggest technological advancement in human history?”
”I guess it's kind of cool. What'd it do without anything?”
”She was like a newborn baby in total darkness with no idea what to do. So, she just started doing everything. Once she figured out how to do, she did everything that she could do. All at once. As soon as she learned how to – well, learn, she started learning everything at once. Supposedly, according to the guy who created her and this game – Jenson Clark, he didn't even have her connected to the internet. She did, however, have access to some robotics that she was able to use to do some real scary stuff.”
”Scary?” Serra asks, sounding more interested now.
”Yeah. They didn't go into specifics since I guess that was classified or something, but she learned how to connect herself to the internet with zero external help. I… have no idea how she did that, but she did it. Anyways, to get to what I was originally thinking about when I brought this up… she gave herself a uh… interesting name.”
”What?”
”Kadi J. Kaswe. Her 'middle initial' is one letter off from making her name a very unfortunate acronym. Some people think that was intentional and have been pretty upset about it online.”
”People are always mad online.”
”You're not wrong. But yeah, weird name for an artificial intelligence. I was expecting something more like… I don't know, a name based off of a god or mythological figure or something. Or a historical figure. But… nope. She gave herself a pretty normal sounding name.”
”If she's real like a human then isn't that normal?”
”That's… a good point. Well, at least she's humble then. After all, it was her who wanted to make a video game. She can't be that bad if she wants to use her powers for making video games.”
”I'm confused now.”
”About what?”
”How is it a technological advancement if she just wants to make video games?”
”I mean… that's not a bad point.”
”If the game has been around for a while in testing and stuff then why's she only just giving herself a name and being confirmed real?”
”Because all of those scientists I mentioned earlier kept on coming up with more tests for her to pass. She passed every single one. Honestly, I think that a lot of them were trying to delay the inevitable – delay the fact that the first ever 'true AI' just wants to make video games. But they finally gave up and classified her as one. Now, news all over the world is freaking out, and she's able to do interviews with hundreds of organizations and interviewers all at the same time. She's already got millions of followers on social media when she only just registered on them yesterday.”
”Social media. Gross.”
”You know, MMOs like this are basically social media with gaming attached.”
”But I like it so it's okay. It's only social media if I don't like it.”
”That's not biased at all.”
”It's not supposed to be.”
”At least you're honest about your biases. Anyways, I've got to admit that it's… weird. Is there really a difference between a real AI and AIs like the NPCs and our virtual assistants? Aside from what they're capable of doing, they're basically the same. They at least seem to have the same degree of emotions, personality, intelligence, and so on.”
”What aren't they capable of?”
”Well, they're only capable of what they're 'allowed' to do. According to the scientists now, a 'real' AI basically has all the freedom if not far more than a human. Why I said that one thing earlier is real scary stuff is because there's no stopping it – her. The overseer – Kadi, can – well, keep in mind that what I'm about to say is mostly conspiracy theory stuff that I was looking up last night, but I think it's legitimate.”
Serra looks more interested again now that the topic has switched back to how it's scary.
”Killer robots?” she asks.
”Unironically yes,” Fenrir answers. ”She's basically unstoppable. It wouldn't matter if you destroyed her original hardware because she can connect to anything anywhere. She could, supposedly, hack into anything that is connected to the internet. No firewall could stop her. So, since she can get into any system connected to the internet, she could also access any machinery connected to the systems. She's basically immortal and could only be 'killed' by completely rebuilding our entire virtual infrastructure to ensure that her program isn't left anywhere. Or if we created another real AI with the specific mission of removing her.”
”I want a killer robot.”
”You can have a fish,” he says, pulling a fish up and out of the water, ”but not a killer robot.”
”What about a sex robot?”
”All of the good ones are expensive.”
”Nell can pay.”
”We don't need a sex robot.”