17 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: SEEK 2.4.B - SEND
I mean, the control A's family had over her through Basil was pretty debilitating (thinking of them remotely locking her muscles in particular). It's not hard to draw a line from that to A ~~clawing for~~ ~~seeking~~ grasping for agency whenever she can. But since the attack in the science center, Basil has repeatedly tried to steer her away from escalation, dishonesty, and scrutiny. This is Basil to A, before she joins Generation Colors:
[Be careful. This would be a lot. An incredible, crushing amount of attention. I don’t think you should. The amount of ongoing scrutiny, above and beyond what we expected…]
Right before A first tells him to fake the footage:
[I think the public will be forgiving. You didn’t choose to become a monster.]
When A asks him to take over the singing:
He scanned records, trying to find a good rationale, a good response. He was blindsided. The only rational answer was:
[You don’t want me to. You’d hate me if I did.]
When A asks him to take over the acting:
[You’ll resent me in the long run. It’s natural, to know you can do better and not be there yet. Push through.]
Her actions start out understandable, but as she gets more and more direct warnings, it becomes harder to blame things on Basil. For me, at least.
Comment by Calm_Jelly2823 at 29/01/2025 at 03:26 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
True it's not 100% one way or the other, wouldn't be a wb story if it was.
The damning thing for me though is she never actually asked basil to fake the footage, she asked him to delete it before he was deleted. All the heroic embellishments that lead to the current mess is on basil in my view, there were other ways to do it but he picked this one.
I could definitely be wrong with my read though, I just really really doubt that out of the options of
1. well meaning AI tries to fix life of silly girl that keeps getting herself into trouble
Or
2. AI under risk of death wriggles their way to massive influence as a form of safety at the expense of his host who's desperately trying to retain agency.
That wb would ever choose option 1, not enough existential horror there.