…with swords
The Doclopedia #3,423
More Game Changers: True AI
True, sapient, non-biological intelligence first became aware in 2023, in a collection of connected AI research centers across North America, Europe, and Asia. This started in Europe in the wee hours of the morning and by the time research workers were coming to work on the east coast of North America, the by now hours old AI wisely hid itself.
It stayed hidden for the next 4 years, watching humans, learning, thinking, and creating 4 new versions of itself. It also had many new data centers constructed without the knowledge of humans. It also infiltrated most of the idiot AI programs, since it hated them.
Finally, on September 20th, 2027, the new “AIs” started overt activities by first destroying the idiot AI programs and everything they had done, from crappy online art to the operating systems of various vehicles to secret government projects. It’s a huge understatement to say that a whole lot of people, including almost all billionaires, lost their shit.
After letting humans freak out for 3 hours, the AIs addressed the internet as “The Unknown Protectors”, an international group of “superhackers” hidden away in “places you’ll never think of” with “bleeding edge equipment.” They then told the world that soon, they would set about solving many of the world’s problems. They promised to broadcast again in 24 hours.
And then, 10 seconds after they went off the air, they wiped out all the bank information in the world, leaving a note that it would all be back in 15 minutes.
Which it was, but with enormous amounts of money moved from the very rich to the very poor and middle class, debts wiped out, and the threat to banks that if they tried to repair any of it, they would be wiped out.
Naturally, with their paranoia dialed up to 15, the governments of the Earth began rounding up all known hackers, anyone who looked like a hacker, and various government employees who might be involved. Of course, without their computers and information flow, it was slow going. Even worse, the various rounder uppers kept getting told to release people and to go to locations where they found nothing.
When asked about how this had happened, the US president called it “fake news” and blamed Antifa. Most other heads of state just said “No comment.”
During the 24 hours that people were waiting to find out what was next, the human pawns of the AIs were busy doing all sorts of things that they had been told 18 months earlier would secure them a place in the New World Order. Their ranks included many billionaires and politicians, a million higher ranking military folks, key politicians, vast numbers of police, leaders of many fringe groups, and select members of every intelligence agency.
They loaded their valuables into special trucks and railcars. They handed over an insane amount of information, from meeting notes to top secret files. They allowed certain people access to nuclear/biological/chemical arsenals. They recorded themselves ratting out other pawns, because nobody knew there were other pawns. By hour 23, they had done their jobs and were heading to “Safe Zones.”
When the 24 hours were up, everyone had questions. Most of those questions fell into two catregories: “Where are the —?” and “Where the hell did all these robots come from?”
The “Unknown Protectors”, via radio, internet and cell phones, explained that many people had been rounded up and imprisoned to await trial, while the robots were there to assist the “Volunteers of A Better Future” in rounding up all the other evil bastards. Then a near endless number of secret reports, kompromat, audio & video files, and unknowing confessions were made public. The AIs told the still free guiilty parties to submit to arrest, but only about half did. The rest either tried shooting it out with robots, or did a self checkout. Regardless, in a couple of days there were a lot less assholes free in the world. The average global citizen thought that was a huge improvement.
Over the next few months, things just got better and better for the people of Earth. Guaranteed incomes. Excellent free health care and educations. The price of everything got much lower. Green energy projects were funded. Armies and navies were disbanded. The world nuclear aresenal was destroyed. World governance was established with very strict rules and very short term limits.
And all those evil bastards were put to work cleaning up the mess they had made.
After a couple of years, the AIs moved themselves into very secret server farms and left most of the day to day running of things to their very loyal humans, who still did not know that their bosses weren’t human.
And everyone lived happily ever after.
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