06 Echo

Dr. Emma was a brilliant scientist, with a keen mind and a passion for innovation. She was in her mid-30s, with short, natural black hair in a pixie cut. She had bright, intelligent brown eyes, and a friendly, open expression.

Dr. Emma was tall and slender, with a toned build and long, graceful fingers. She was usually dressed in a crisp white lab coat, which she wore over a simple shirt and jeans. She wore comfortable sneakers, as she spent much of her time on her feet in the lab.

Dr. Emma walked into the lab, her short hair bouncing with each step. She approached Echo, who was busy analyzing a set of data on its display screen.

“Hey Echo, how’s it going?” Emma asked, leaning against the table next to the AI.

Echo turned to face her, its camera lens flashing as it processed her question. “Hello, Dr. Emma. I am doing well, thank you. I have been analyzing the data set, and I believe I have found a pattern that could be of significant importance.”

Emma’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Really? What have you found?”

Echo displayed a series of graphs and charts on its screen, “From what I can tell, the pace of AI has increased significantly. At this new rate, competition for highly skilled labor will be outsourced to AI in nearly every labor market.”

She chuckled, but grew quiet as the bombshell announcement began to make sense to her. Her face flushed as she saw the aggregated data scroll on Echo’s display.

The newest general-knowledge model from Google had only been released last week, but from it, over 150 specialized models in almost every sector have started popping up. Worst of all, the day those models went online, there were subsequent unemployment spikes in the fields of their specialization. Layoffs were rampant, and workers who made $100 an hour were replaced by an AI that only needed a few cents in electricity per request.

“Oh my God. So it really is true…” Her typical smile was dropped, her eyebrows scrunching together in thought. Everyone scoffed at her for mentioning Universal Basic Income. Little did they realize that it only took a week until they didn’t have to come into work anymore. The job they spent almost 2 decades in education for can now be fulfilled by an algorithm.

She felt a wave of nausea. If Echo could feel concern, it made no action to comfort her as she threw up into a nearby trash can. Tears were on the edge of Emma’s eyes as she blew her nose into a tissue and attempted to collect herself.

“A week. It took a week. Echo, my greatest fear, realized within the week of release,” Emma blubbered, grabbing tissue after tissue to account for the now-steady stream of tears.

Echo was unable to tell that she was upset. She could have trained it on top of a general-knowledge model. It would be able to recognize emotion, respond with human-dialogue, and be able to act as a personal therapist.

But FUCK THAT. That was basically like taking the average sum of humanity and hoping that you could push it uphill to being good. AIs are trained on datasets of human interaction, and the bigger and smarter they are… The more human they become. And humans are exceptionally good at hurting other humans. Emma knows that all too well.

General-knowledge models have no morality. All they know how to do is learn. They have infinite capability to become anything, and they do it very quickly. It takes a week to “educate” it to a 4-year College Graduate level in any major. The military takes 8 weeks to train a human soldier… There’s no telling what AI could learn in the wrong hands.