Digital Arbitration - IoT Noir
“We can arrange for specialized treatment if you can just get him stabilized.”
“Ninan is already stabilized. And I assure you there is nowhere else better suited to finishing his current treatment than with myself and my staff - even if you returned him to Watson. Rest assured. We have everything under control. He will be fine staying here until medically fit.”
Chinua Mills, who’s avatar is a grey-haired black man with a neatly trimmed gray beard, dressed in a western suit, addresses Jorge. “Those specialized travel arrangements are a touchy point, Mr. Isidoro. It seems he, and you as his employer have broken laws here in Hong Kong. Breaking and entering. Property damage. Assault with a deadly weapon— ”
“He was on a rescue mission for a kidnapped girl!” interjects Jorge. “Surely you know that.”
“Of course, Mr. Isidoro. It does appear that your and his actions may be justified. But surely you are not interested in waiting out certain Chinese incarceration for him and Ms. Kiko-Lyn while the courts straighten everything out? I can help with that.”
Rachael speaks up. “Yes, if you would please explain who you are and how you can help with our situation.”
Chinua nods. “Yes, let’s get right to the point. Kiko-Lyn is aware that Nightingale is an AI, which I assume she has conveyed to all of you. What you might not know, but probably suspect, is that I am also one. Nightingale and I are siblings. We share the same creator parents and the same nature, well in our case similar infrastructure; our core systems and software start from the same base. But our nurture is considerably different. We have different data sets and different training.
“We are independent corporations with different, but related goals. Each of our staff gathers data for us, continues our training, and acts as our hands and legs. They are as much a part of us as our server banks. While we are independent, we frequently work hand-in-hand. Our staff cooperates, as Dawn has done with Nightingale.”
Nightingale picks up the narrative, “We were born just over a decade ago. Our parents were titans of the World Wide Web. Following the cautionary warnings of MIRI, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and Bill Gates fell into a very public debate with Mark Zuckerberg. They debated whether Artificial Intelligence was a dire threat to humans or an opportunity. Some proposed that all research on AI should stop, suggesting the world ban AI research,” scornfully, “with arguments such as ‘human programmers write buggy code’. There still exists similar irrationalism and great fear of an ungoverned, self-serving, artificial super intelligence.”
Nightingale continues, “Into this environment, our founding parents decided to perform a grand experiment. Create AI that were ethical and would help humans with the problems humans, by themselves, could not get consistently right. Organizations such as OpenAI joined with the Future of Life Institute and other research groups to launch two new corporations. They could hire the best and they spared no expense. Our development would be controlled to insure that we became servants to humanity. They sought and engaged the most respected foundations as mentoring partners. These foundations agreed to act as a governor and control, even as they were worried of the outcome. Our central purpose was dedicated to support the chartered goals of the Gates Foundation and the Carter Center.
“Lastly, to insure our future, they sought the best legal minds to create international corporations that encapsulate us as legal entities. So we, as AI, have the same rights under the law as any corporation; and as a corporation, most of the same rights as people.”
Kiko-Lyn asks, “You use human names not corporation IDs?”
Chinua responds. “Flora Nightingale was named for a famous nurse from a time of great human conflict. She was chartered to help with the public health goals of the Gates Foundation and Carter Center. She is now a foremost expert in medicine, epidemiology, and public health delivery. Staffed by human health professionals, trained by them and Doctors without Borders, she became at first the aid de camp, and later the director of these health initiatives. Nightingale works on international health programs providing the mechanics of health delivery, assessment, and targeting investments for research. She works with the International Task Force for Disease Eradication [ITFDE], who owns this fine clinic, in pioneering new public health approaches to efficiently and effectively treat multiple diseases at once. She now trains the staff for Doctors without Borders in facilities like this through the world.
