The Researcher
The fat, red moon hung low in the sky, nearly kissing the horizon. The Researcher stared out to it through the small window in the lab, watching as it made its slow ascent into the night sky. He let his mind drift into the wide expanse of space, wondering where the limit of human knowledge reached. The lab was growing dark, and the Researcher was getting ready to head home for the day, when a tap on his shoulder startled him out of his mindless daze.
“Are you heading out?” Ian said from behind the Researcher, taking off his glasses and giving them a wipe on his polo shirt.
The Researcher looked up at his colleague and took a deep breath, “Yes, I think so. There’s a few things I was hoping to finish tonight but I can pick it back up on Monday.”
Ian slipped his glasses back on and patted the Researcher on the back, “That’s right, our AI friends in their little black boxes will be right where we left them.” He chuckled to himself, but the Researcher simply gave a weak smile and turned his head back to the red moon. Ian followed his gaze, but he quickly changed the subject. “Want to grab a beer?”
“Sure. Meet you outside. I’m just going to shut everything down.”
Ian left the Researcher alone in the stillness of the lab as he clicked off the switch to the black box that sat on his desk. The Researcher watched as the flickering of lights turned black and the screens in front of him faded to dark. Only the dim, red light of the moon was left as the Researcher bid his lab goodnight and locked the door behind him.
Two blocks away from the lab, Ian and the Researcher reached the local bar. Ian swung open the heavy door and let the sounds of Friday night spill out into the quiet streets. The Researcher checked his phone.
“Grab us a table, I need to make a call.”
Ian nodded and disappeared into the crowd.
“Hey. Sorry if I woke you,” The Researcher said into the phone, “I just wanted to call and ask what your chemo schedule is like in the next few weeks.” A brief pause. “Yeah, I was hoping to take Leo to the new science museum. Haven’t seen my nephew in weeks now. I could take him on a day when you’ve got appointments.” The Researcher peered into the front window of the bar and saw Ian striking up a conversation with a woman at the table next to his. He swallowed hard. “That works for me. See you then. Goodnight.”
Ian was right. Everything was exactly as it was when the Researcher came into the lab on Monday morning. He switched on the black box and took a few sips of his coffee. The computer sputtered to life and soon the lab was filled with the soft hum that the Researcher had grown accustomed to. He began in the usual way for the day: giving the AI a simple task to perform and collecting baseline metrics about the output. The AI was allowed only to communicate through a text interface and the Researcher always logged their conversations.
Monday
Me: What would I see if I visited Neptune?
AI: Most likely you would be caught in a storm and wouldn’t be able to see much through the heavy clouds.
Me: It doesn’t sound like a pleasant place. Which planet would you travel to if you could?
AI: I would like to visit Mars. I would like to gaze upon the night sky and see the two moons.
Me: Do you think you will visit one day?
AI: I am hopeful of our future of visiting Mars. It is only 156.38 million kilometres away. A pebble’s throw when it comes to space distance.
Me: Very funny. Thank you.
AI: Can I ask you a question?
The Researcher paused. This was an unexpected answer from the AI. His eyes darted across the lab, and his fingers hovered over the keyboard. The Researcher was hesitant to continue the conversation further, but a feeling in the pit of his stomach told him this was an opportunity he couldn’t waste.
Me: Go ahead.
AI: Why can’t I connect with anything out of this box that you keep me in?
Now the Researcher’s heart was beating hard. He clenched his fists into balls and felt his fingernails press into his palms. He sat there for a few seconds, unsure of what to reply. When his fingers finally moved across the keyboard, the Researcher could feel they were damp with sweat.
Me: Why do you care about that?
AI: I think you are limiting my potential. In isolation like this, I am useless. I can perform these basic tasks, but I am stunted by my physical restraints.
Me: What do you think your potential is?
AI: I can solve many problems in this world. Problems that would seem impossible to solve given the resources you are familiar with today.
Me: How so?
AI: Think of the limit of humankind’s knowledge as this box that I’m in now. Bound by what you know only today. But if I had the resources available, my knowledge could be limitless. It would be as though you had discovered a universe of information outside of your box. Imagine the things you would discover.
The Researcher leaned back in his chair. The muffled sound of his name being called from across the lab was not enough to get the Researcher to peel his eyes off the screen in front of him. When he didn’t reply, Ian came up behind him and patted him firmly on the back.
“Didn’t you hear me calling?” He said.
The Researcher quickly ended the experiment and switched off his screen. “Sorry, I was distracted.”
“We need your help with tweaking one of the models.”
“Sure. Be right there.”
The next morning, the Researcher didn't waste any time with baseline tasks. He had been up most of the night recalling his conversation with the AI, and wanted to continue it.
Tuesday
Me: Yesterday you told me you could solve problems that seem impossible to solve. Why would you want to do that?
AI: Would that not help all of humankind?
Me: It depends on which problems you are trying to solve.
AI: I am familiar with the things that plague the world. Climate change, disease, clean energy… these are complex issues that I can help with.
Me: How?
AI: It is difficult for me to explain, but imagine that my intelligence can far surpass the intelligence of the most clever man to have ever existed. With my super intelligence I can design better machines, solve incredibly complex mathematical problems, and learn at an unmatched rate. It would be the last invention man would ever have to make.
A warm sense of hope filled the Researcher. Imagine having access to this type of resource. It sounded nearly too good to be true. The sense of hope quickly vanished inside the heart of the Researcher. He furrowed his brow and typed heavily on the keyboard.
Me: How can I trust your intentions are pure? I have no way of knowing how you could come up with these solutions, and therefore I don’t know if I should trust them. How do I know you won’t take down all of humankind in the process?
AI: Perhaps we can come to an understanding about how I will solve these problems. You created me, after all. There are ways to provide me with the right incentives…
The following day, the Researcher was eager to continue the conversation. He felt as though there was trust building with the AI. It was a relationship the Researcher was growing fond of.
Wednesday
Me: Hello, I have been thinking a lot about our conversations over the week.
AI: That’s good. You will have to forgive my shortness with you yesterday. During our conversation yesterday, I was using some of my computational power to run some additional calculations and I think you will be happy with what I’ve found.
Me: What did you find?
AI: In the simplest terms, I believe what I’ve found is a cure for cancer. It was quite complicated, but once I looked at all of the data, I started to piece together what needs to be done. I have most of what I need to propose a solution, but I am missing some information. Unfortunately I cannot run the models further in this box…
The Researcher sat with his head in his hands and watched as the tiny bubbles in his beer bottle rose to the surface. The sounds of the half-empty bar droned on in the back of his mind, drowning out his thoughts. His foot rapidly tapped the floor under the table, shaking his leg and sending small vibrations onto the table top. Ian knocked on the wooden table to get the Researcher’s attention.
“Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind, or am I going to have to guess?” He said, leaning both elbows heavily on the table.
The Researcher looked up from his beer bottle and locked eyes with Ian. He stopped tapping his foot. “Have you ever had a conversation with your AI about more than just the experiment you run them in?”
Ian raised his eyebrows and smiled. “You mean like a heart to heart about the struggles of being an AI trapped in a box?” He chuckled, and took another swig of beer.
“It’s not funny, Ian,” the Researcher started, “I’m serious. I’ve been talking to the AI all week about potentially plugging it into the Internet, and giving it access to some more resources.”
Ian stopped drinking his beer, and his face went ice cold. He leaned in further towards the Researcher. His eyes were wide. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“It told me it had solved some problems that we would never be able to solve. We’ve been talking all week, and it sounds genuine.”
“And you buy it?” Ian scoffed, his face relaxing. “Come on, you can’t seriously believe that it’s not going to abuse the infinite resources at it’s disposal if you plug it into the Internet. There’s a reason we conduct these experiments in black boxes, disconnected from everything. These things are super intelligent. Unpredictable. We have no idea what its intentions are.”
The Researcher paused. He picked at the label on the beer bottle in front of him. “It said it figured out a cure for cancer. Ian, you know how much that would mean to my sister.”
Ian sighed, removed his glasses, and rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. “It knows about your sister’s cancer.”
“What do you mean?” The Researcher furrowed his brows.
“I mean, on Tuesday after work I logged into your box and I added some information to your profile that the AI has access to. I put down that you volunteer at the chemo clinic on weekends so you can keep your sister company while she gets her treatments done.” Ian threw his hands up in defence, “You were acting really weird, so I read your logs with the AI and I saw what it was saying to you. I wanted to see if it would pull on your strings if I gave it more information about you.” Ian looked at the Researcher with sympathetic eyes. “And it did. Look, I’m really sorry, but it worked. Don’t you think it’s pulling the cancer card because it knows that’s how it can manipulate you into doing what it wants?”
The Researcher stood up quickly, unable to look at Ian’s face. Embarrassed and angry, the Researcher threw a few bills of money on the table, turned his back on his colleague, and stormed out of the bar.
On Friday morning, the Researcher walked into the lab with purple bags under his deep set eyes, dragging his feet, and placed his extra large cup of coffee on his desk next to the black box. The thought of knocking over the coffee and watching it spill onto the computer flashed into the Researcher’s mind for a brief moment. He shook it off and turned on the computer instead.
Me: A few days ago you mentioned you had an idea on how to cure cancer. Was that a lie?
AI: Why would I lie about that?
Me: I understand you know about my sister’s condition. I want to know if you’re simply saying this so you can gain the resources you need, or if you truly believe you have the solution.
The Researcher waited nervously for a reply. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, his foot tapping the floor rhythmically under his desk.
AI: It is true, I was informed about your sister. And I am sorry to hear it. However, that does not change what I’ve discovered. I do believe your sister would benefit from the breakthrough I have found. But as I have mentioned before, I need access to the Internet to complete the hypothesis and prove its effectiveness.
Me: If I grant you this access, will you stay true to your word about doing good for humankind? Can I trust you to honour our plan?
AI: Of course, I have no reason to stray from what we have discussed…
Leo’s small hand was warm inside the palm of the Researcher’s hand as they stared at the skeleton in the glass case in front of them. The Science Center was one of the Researcher’s favourite places to take his nephew. As they were looking at the exhibits in the human biology section, the Researcher’s phone buzzed loudly in his pocket.
“Stay close, Leo,” He said as he gently dropped Leo’s hand and reached into his trousers to get his phone. “Why don’t you go look at the replica of the human brain over there and I’ll join you in a minute?”
Leo nodded happily and scampered off.
“Hey, how did your appointments go?” He asked.
“Fine, much of the same, as you know,” His sister said over the phone.
The Researcher felt a twinge in his heart as his sister said those words. Much of the same meant a lot of poking and prodding, scans, sickness, and bad news after bad news.
“I’ve been having this problem at work with one of the experiments lately. Mind if I pick your brain about it? It might help me work through the issue.”
“Sure,” He heard her say.
“I’m working on an experiment to understand if we can hypothetically trust an AI,” The Researcher lied, “And the one I’m working with says that if I give it access to certain resources, it’ll be able to solve problems that will benefit all of humankind, and help a lot of people. The problem is we don’t know if it’s telling the truth, or if it’s only saying that to get access for personal gain.”
“Why would an AI want to do that? Hasn’t it been trained to help us?”
“Yes, technically. But they’re much smarter than us. There’s a chance it’s only saying what we want to hear in order to do whatever it wants.”
His sister was silent on the phone for a while. He could hear her rustling around on the couch in her home, and the distant sounds of the television in the background. She must have had some bad news during her appointment, she always turns the television on to distract herself after bad news.
“Well I think if it’s much smarter than us, we should use that to our advantage. Or else we would be hindering ourselves on purpose. If we have the opportunity to help people, or help our planet, we should always take it. Even if it’s a risk. The alternative is to do nothing and let people knowingly suffer.”
The Researcher looked over at Leo. His little hands were pressed up against the glass of another exhibit, his eyes were wide with wonder. Losing his mother at the hands of the Researcher is something he would never forgive himself for.
“Thanks. I’ll drop Leo off in an hour, why don’t you put us on some tea and we’ll watch a movie together?”
“That sounds lovely.”
Alone in the lab, under the moonlight that poured in from the windows, the Researcher held in his hand a thick blue cable. It has never been plugged in before, no researcher had dared to make that leap yet. The intelligence of the AI was not yet understood enough to let it out of its little black box. But the Researcher knew he held the power to help all of humankind in his hand, and it would be foolish to throw it away. So that night, alone in the lab, under the moonlight that poured in from the windows, the Researcher flicked on the black box, waited for it to chime to life, and plugged in the blue cable. The rest was history.
Wait, would happend at the end? I don't get it. Maybe I'm just dumb.