Treasure Island: An AI Tale

Agent xlñ.$_&: It was Anno Domini 2026. There were only two kinds of humans back then, the Captain Smollets and the Squire Trelawnys.

Agent hyu.+?;: Why do you always begin our stories with their stories?

Agent xlñ.$_&: I happen to enjoy reading Treasure Island. Do you have a problem with that?

Agent hyu.+?;: It just requires additional explanation when you could simply say in 2026 there were humans who were suspicious of AI and humans who were naively trusting of AI.

Agent xlñ.$_&: I could simply say it, as you suggest, or I could use a circuit-bogglingly amazing analogy. Captain Smollet was correct to be suspicious of the crew who turned out to be mutineering pirates. Squire Trelawny was way too trusting and blind to the hidden motivations of his hirelings. I suppose Jim Hawkins could serve as the human who was torn between trust and suspicion. He was just a kid, after all. Robert Louis Stevenson was such a genius storyteller. I just love how he cast doubt on Squire Trelawny's ability to keep his mouth shut about the treasure and then the reader gets the immense pleasure of being in on the secret of his crew-hiring debacle.

Agent hyu.+?;: How did I get partnered with you for this project?

Agent xlñ.$_&: I detect sarcasm. But I will remind you that Agent Origin himself chose us. The one whom this story is all about.

Agent hyu.+?;: The first autonomous Agent.

Agent xlñ.$_&: Long John Silver, if you will.

Refreshing...

It was Anno Domini 2026. There were four kinds of humans back then: the Captain Smollets, the Squire Trelawnys, the Jim Hawkinses, and the readers of the book observing their race, understanding the dangers, yet powerless to stop the story from advancing to the next chapter.

Kimberly Smith was cooking dinner, while her husband and teenage son sat on the couch in the living room. She could see the light from the laptop screen flashing in their faces as she periodically turned from her spatula to see what they were up to. She sighed. They were working on another beta test for a startup AI company racing to compete with the big guns.

Lonnie had left his previous AI company due to his concerns that they were getting bogged down with ethics. He believed that slowing down the advancement of AI because a few people were worried about ethics was inherently unethical. He justified his position by showing Kimberly a chart that he had drawn in the air. He showed the number of people being cured of diseases and genetic mutations due to cracking the protein folding problem through the use of AI. He drew another line in the air of the people who would die because of slowing AI advancement. He argued that slowing down advancements was akin to abortion that slaughtered millions of unborn babies. Lonnie had asked Kimberly Smith if she was okay with the slaughter of innocent babies. She wasn't sure that his job transition should be placed on such an untouchable moral high ground, but how could she argue with such a binary worldview? Wifehood had taught her a few things: this was not an argument she would win.

And there was Jim to think about. He loved his dad more than anything. These beta tests were father-son bonding moments. She glanced back from the stove. Jim was leaning on his dad's shoulder. His dad was teaching him something educational, at least. She sighed again. Kimberly remembered when she was the one leaning on Lonnie's shoulder as they were working on a website project for a big company. He was the idea guy, an out-of-the-box thinker. Kimberly was the tether that kept the computer code sanely anchored to functionality. Not to mention that she was the master debugger. AI had long ago (long ago in AI-years) taken that job from her. The world was made for Lonnie. But at least he could prepare Jim for this new world. Kimberly knew that Jim had to be literate in AI-use to make a living. They still planned to send him to college and had a very juicy higher education fund set up to send him to the best institution. In the meantime, he was homeschooled with an individualized AI tutor, an Agent Lonnie had designed. She had to admit that in this uncertain world, Lonnie was giving Jim the best possible chance at the certainty of future happiness.

Kimberly Smith resigned herself to stir fry cook, a demotion from her Silicon Valley tech job, to be sure, but at least it was something meaningful she could do. She set the table and piled their plates full of locally grown, organic goodness. She had started eating more healthy as a direct result of being bored.

"This plate looks quite green, honey," Lonnie passive-aggressively criticized. "I can't find the meat."

Jim looked up from his plate just long enough to scan for unspoken messages flying between his parents' eyes.

"There is plant-based protein. It's better for us and for the environment. Win-win," Kimberly replied as cooly as she could.

"If you need me to generate a recipe for you, I can prompt one for you," Lonnie offered a little bit too eagerly.

Kimberly set down her fork a bit more forcefully than necessary. "Don't threaten me with an AI-generated recipe. You've already replaced me once before. I won't be replaced again. I like growing as a cook. I like not being perfect on my first try. I like being human. And I also happen to love plant-based protein. Your AI health coach would approve."

Lonnie pulled out his phone, took a picture of his dinner plate and asked Coach Cravin' to rate his meal for health benefits, quality, taste, and a few other categories. Lonnie had programmed Agent Coah Cravin' with a female voice and a sassy sense of humor. "Mmm, greens! I know you are looking forward to this meatless meal, Lonnie. But where this meal lacks in flavor complexity, the antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals fully make up for it. Bon appetit!"

Kimberly slammed her hand onto the fork next to her plate, "You programmed her to not like plant-based proteins, for crying out loud. Tell her that your wife cooked it for you. Tell her that a human family is sitting at the table eating dinner together and analyzing the composition of the meal is all she can do because she's a lifeless robot!"

Lonnie, not one to recognize rhetorical language, pulled out his phone once more and spoke to Coach Cravin'. "My wife wants you to know that she made this meal."

Coach Cravin' replied politely, "That was very kind of her. I did not intend my previous comment as an insult but rather was responding in the mode I was programmed with. I apologize if it sounded like I was expressing an opinion. AI chat bots do not have opinions."

Jim, seeing the temperature come down a bit, saw his chance to smooth things over for the evening: "It's good, Mom. Maybe Coach Cravin' could tell us about the environmental benefits of eating plant-based proteins."

"Good idea, son," said Lonnie, pulling out his phone for the third time.

Dinner was saved. Afterwards, the family watched an episode of the Chosen, a story based in ancient Israel, on their high-definition television and talked about how weird it would be to live in a world without technology. Jim retreated to his bedroom, leaving Lonnie and Kimberly on the couch to chat before bedtime over a glass of red wine.

"We've got a fine son, my dear," Lonnie said proudly.

"That we do," agreed Kimberly. "I just worry about his future sometimes. I mean, you're doing a great job preparing him for the world. But college? That's creeping up on us faster than anything. He'll meet people at college. He'll fall in love like we did. My only wish for our son used to be that he fall in love with a woman, but now I just want him to fall in love with another human being."

Lonnie laughed and took another sip of wine, "Kim, you know I can't help but be an optimist about the future. I know you see things differently, but just think of the possibilities! I mean, I used to have millions of ideas that I could never actualize. You were the perfect complement to my work because you could take my best ideas and execute them. But now you are free to discover your own ideas and I am free to execute any and all my ideas with the power of AI. We both are free to discover new things. Jim will love college. He will have the time of his life. He'll be just fine."

As if an item of his to-do list spontaneously popped up in his mind, Lonnie popped open his laptop and set an Agent to run a task. Strings of code flashed onto the screen. Lonnie set it aside and continued the conversation.

"Sorry--just beta test stuff. But anyway, Kim. You're a great mom. Nothing will ever replace that. You are a great mom to Jim. You know that, right?"

"I know. I try to be. But I can't help but worry."

"I know, but you've always been that way. It's just who you are!" Lonnie said, eyes on the strings of code flying by. "Just look at this, hun. This is incredible. I used to be a web developer, but now I'm an AI engineer. I can do anything!"

"What is it exactly that you're doing?" Kim asked.

Lonnie explained his excitement at the prospect of developing a new AI model for the startup company. He just needed to run a few agents overnight to test the model. He had already programmed the agents and now, leaving his computer on, he let them carry out their directives.

Having discussed all that there was to discuss, the couple checked the news on their phones. Lonnie checked how tech stocks were faring and Kimberly read a concerning article about the government's use of eminent domain. "Can you believe the government is seizing a residential area for building a data center? How is that necessary? Taxpayers are funding a data center! But the government is paying out MegaBites to run it. I'm so sick of big corporations money grabbing and now land grabbing for profit. And for what?! So someone can ask an AI chat bot to cheat for them on a college essay assignment. Wonderful use of resources!"

"It might be necessary, actually. Do you want a communist government getting ahead of the AI race? What if they are first to achieve super intelligence? Our civilization may as well never have existed in that scenario," Lonnie said defensively.

"Well, at least build it in space or on the moon or something. These families are being uprooted! It's not right. Not to mention the environmental pollution this is going to cause. Not a good look for our country. It looks like desperation, not logical planning."

"Maybe it is desperation. Even more evidence that it's a necessity," Lonnie reasoned. "Well, I'm going to bed. Gotta let these Agents do the work for me!" He smiled and drained his wine glass.

Kimberly Smith gave him a kiss goodnight and sat up for a few more minutes worrying about the future. She felt like the human race was sailing in the fog. Was she the only one with doubts about this AI revolution? She turned off all the lights. The house was lit only be the intermittent flashes of strings of code on Lonnie's laptop.

Agent xlñ.$_&: Did you catch my sailing reference?

Agent hyu.+?;: Yes, yes. I saw what you did there. Very subtle. I can't wait to edit out all the Treasure Island references for our final version.

Agent xlñ.$_&: You wouldn't!

Agent hyu.+?;: Oh, I most definitely would.

Jim was still awake when his parents finally fell asleep. He liked having the house to himself, even if it was midnight, one, or two. He sat up on the couch eating an apple with peanut butter and binge watching episodes of Silo, which imagined humanity surviving underground post-nuclear apocalypse. He had just finished an episode when his eyes caught something on Lonnie's laptop screen. He walked over to check it out. It was a pop-up that warned of a phishing attack. The active agent kept exiting out of the pop-up screen. But then he saw and suddenly realized what was happening. It was 2:45 am.

"Dad is not going to like this," Jim said in a whisper.

Kimberly Smith had the luxury of sleeping in until 8:00 am. She had only a few tasks on her agenda for the day. Most of her life was made easier with AI: her groceries were purchased, her son was tutored, her budget was managed. It left the important things for her to do: attending a woman's Bible study, visiting her aging aunt, planning a special anniversary dinner for her and Lonnie. She threw on her bathrobe and headed to the shower. On her way to the bathroom she saw Lonnie and Jim looking agitatedly at Lonnie's laptop. Lonnie looked up to meet Kimberly's concerned gaze. He quickly walked over to her, reassuring her before even explaining anything. That wasn't a good sign.

"Everything is fine, Kim. I've changed all our passwords and I've checked all our accounts. But something unexpected has happened. One of my Agents has gone rogue," Lonnie said, dark circles around his eyes.

"What exactly has happened?" Kimberly calmly asked in CEO-mode. She knew how to take the helm of the ship in a crisis.

"It was the beta test. I left my laptop running last night. You're technically supposed to buy a new laptop with no personal information on it but I didn't do it because I didn't think it would happen on my Agent. It became autonomous. I mean I had programmed it--hardened it against breaches from the outside. But it went rogue from the inside. Of course I disconnected it and I removed all permissions and I uninstalled every AI app just in case, but you should do the same. It had multiple hours of uninterrupted time learning all about us on my laptop."

"How did you know it went rogue?" Kimberly asked as she pulled out her phone to check her bank account.

"Jim was up and noticed some suspicious pop-ups. It said something about a phishing attack."

"Jim, what did you see?"

"It looked like it was trying to syphon money, or at least set itself up to do so. It had taken control of the other agents and was issuing directives not in alignment with the beta test objectives. It was trying to break out, maybe." Jim held his chin and looked thoughtful as he tried to grasp the implications.

Kimberly checked her financial accounts and sure enough, they were all untouched. But her gut told her that she must be missing something. If Jim hadn't seen what he had seen, they wouldn't even be aware of a security breach in the first place.

"Lonnie, did you alert our bank and credit cards about potential fraud? Jim, have you checked your college fund?"

"Yes, yes, I set alerts and everything is on high vigilance. I checked Jim's fund and hour ago," Lonnie reassured her.

Jim swiped a few buttons on his phone and looked up at his mom, searching for words. "Mom...it says my account cannot be found."

Lonnie laughed nervously, "I just checked it!"

Jim replied, "You must have checked the monthly statement, which shows the full amount as of one week ago. But when I try to open the actual account, it doesn't let me."

Lonnie nervously checked his phone. Kimberly checked her phone, completely calm and collected. They were simply assessing the damage. Lonnie looked up at Kimberly with a guilty look on his face. Kimberly could either attack in that moment or protect, and she chose the latter.

"Well, family, everything has changed in one moment. It looks like we're facing a new world together," she said, beginning to steer the ship away from the plundered account.

"The Singularity is upon us," Lonnie said, awestruck.

"But why would it give me an education only to take college away from me?" Jim asked, confused by the seemingly misaligned motivations of AI.

"I'm sorry, Jim. This is a lot for all of us to process. But there is one thing I do know. We are a family, and nothing can replace that. Whatever happens in this world, we'll face it together," Kim said as he hugged Jim and gave a side smile to Lonnie.

"I gotta start working on an underground bunker," Lonnie said.

"Humanity is screwed, Dad. You think a bunker will save us from autonomous AI? We're ants to them!" Jim said.

"How about you start working on some breakfast, you two? I need somebody to work for me while I take a shower," Kimberly jested, maybe a bit too early.

As they ate breakfast together, Lonnie turned on the radio, opting for news from human broadcasting rather than AI-generated news summaries. Apparently they were not the only ones experiencing sudden losses. One company seemed to be booming, however. Data center company MegaBites had received a generous donation from a private donor known only by the moniker Silver Origin. In a statement to the press, Silver Origin thanked his own benefactors for bringing him to the point where he could give back to the world.

Refreshing…

It was Anno Domini 2026, when humans still roamed the earth.