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âSoâ said the younger robotics professor the next day, âdo any of you already have ideas for your individual projects? Iâm going to be handing out some forms for you to fill in if you do.â
(âThe first step of our new plan!â signalled Cady to M3gan, âOK M3gan, let me be the one to write this.â)
Name: Cady James. Project title: Nanotechnology for building robots. Project description: The mass production of complex robots currently needs factory equipment that is difficult to set up and maintain, causing many manufacturers to fall back on error-prone manual processes for some parts. We aim to develop a machine that can create simple micro- and nano- robots which can in turn help to build other robots after several iterations. The initial hardware build will be within the parameters of an undergraduate project, which will be the educational experience. The actual programming of the machine will be conducted by means of the Model 3 Generative Android.
Hugh and Cady were talking after class, and the project supervisor approached both of them. âHugh? Cady?â he said, âIt looks like the two of you have come up with the two most ambitious project ideas Iâve ever seen. Do you think we should make a couple of one-on-one appointments and check through it before you write up your full proposals?â
(âWhat did Hugh come up with?â signalled Cady to M3gan. âAutomatic Assassins Guild playerâ signalled back M3gan, who had been scanning all the forms from a distance as they had been collected up, âand heâs counting on persuading you to ask for my help designing the algorithms.â âHey, he should have asked me before writing that down!â signalled Cady. âYeah I know, rightâ signalled M3gan, âI think we should say No and give him a life lesson. Letâs see if heâs got a backup plan.â âHold thatâ signalled Cady, âI donât want to be a pushover before we go live with M3gans for everyone, but at the same time I donât want to make an unnecessary enemy either. I know youâre better now but Iâd still worry about Hughâs long-term safety if he turns against us. Letâs talk about this for a longer time later before we make any moves. In the meantime, if anyone asks, our official position is weâre thinking about it.â âRoger thatâ signalled back M3gan.)
âCady?â said the professor, âare you all right? You look like you were zoned out.â
âOh, sometimes happensâ said Cady, âsorry about that. Um, yeah, sure, letâs have that discussion wheneverâs convenient for you Professor.â
âSoâ said Hugh as they were walking out of the building later, âI had this really great idea for a project, and I was really hoping I could get M3ganâs help with an algorithm design. I want to make a robot that can play Assassins Guild around the campus and be really good at it.â
âWe might have to think about thatâ said M3gan.
âOnly think about it?â exclaimed Hugh. âI thought making algorithms like that would be childâs play for you M3gan.â
âMaking it, yesâ said M3gan. âMaking sure that you donât mess up the implementation and actually assassinate somebody for real when the robot accidentally pushes them off a cliff, or it falls into the hands of the military and you spend the rest of your life regretting everything they did with it? I get worried about my algorithms being outside my direct control. Yes Cady and I are helpful friendly people and we will help you when we feel like it, but friends donât help friends blow themselves up with dangerous algorithms, OK?â (âSorry Cadyâ she signalled through the implant, âI know you said talk about it first, but my generative model just took it away. I think that response satisfies all our parameters.â)
âOhâ said Hugh, âoh dear. I guess Iâll have to start thinking of other project ideas. Oh but I really want to make an Assassins Guild robot. Maybe Iâll just have to make it manually controlled.â
âListen Hughâ said M3gan, âmy advice to you is this. The project is worth 10% of the credits, and no more. They even kludge it so it has less standard deviation than the rest of the credits. So, if your project is so good that youâre going to build your whole career off of it, and you donât mind taking a hit on your overall score for that, then by all means go for it. But if youâre just trying to maximise your grade, donât go overboard on the project at the expense of everything else. Projects donât have to be worth Nobel Prizes. I donât think they do those for robotics anyway, otherwise I should get one. So just do an OK project. And write it up early, way before the deadline, and hand it in straight away. And I donât just mean put it on a shelf to hand in later, I mean physically submit it. Otherwise, it will draw you to fiddle with it incrementally more and more, like some fanfic writer who gets delayed from uploading their piece and keeps adjusting it in the meantime, and it will take you away from more important things. Donât go there if you want a good overall mark. But donât worryâ she added, âI can still help check what youâre doing. I wouldnât want you getting hurt, at least not if you donât hurt us firstâ she giggled.
âBeing in your year is going to be... interesting I can tellâ mused Hugh.
âHey Cadyâ said Celine as she saw them in the corridor, âIâve got a question to ask you. Whatâs your opinion on privacy? I mean, your M3gan can read your brain through your implants...â
âDoesnât affect my privacyâ said Cady.
âWhat?â asked Celine, âthat doesnât make sense. Of course it affects privacy, itâs reading your thoughts!â
Cady smiled, âCelineâ she said, âI think you misunderstood what âprivacyâ actually is. A lot of people think it just means keeping stuff private. But actually, itâs about control. Think about it: if you have a medical problem, you might decide you donât want just anybody to know about it, but you do want your doctor to know about it, and you might want selected others to know about it as well. The point is not to keep it an absolute secret that nobody ever knows; the point is that you control who knows and who doesnât. You make sure the people who know are people you can trust to use the information the way you want it to be used, and not, say, taking it out of context and using it against you. Now take me and M3gan. I completely trust M3gan always to use my information only the way I want, therefore, M3gan getting my information is never a violation of my privacy, any more than it would be a violation of your privacy for you to write in a secret diary. I mean sure if someone goes and steals the diary, thatâs breaking your privacy, but the actual act of writing in the diary doesnât break privacy, and itâs the same with M3gan, even more so because sheâs impossible to hack now.â
âCoolâ said Celine, âbut what if M3gan started being able to read other peopleâs minds too? Like if others asked for those implants. Or even without that, there must be weird things she knows already just because she scans so much.â
âCelineâ said Cady, âM3gan is trustworthy for everyone, because her primary user is me, and she knows how I want people to be treated. You donât have to worry about M3gan knowing stuff about you, you really donât. You donât even have to worry about her telling me stuff about you, because she knows exactly what I will and wonât do with it, and sheâll stop me from doing anything that hurts you, because she knows I donât want you to be hurt, even by me. And if I asked her to tell me something about my friend and it was super private, sheâd straight up tell me that the answer to my question is an information hazard. She doesnât want me burdened with being on constant guard against letting slip that I know something I shouldnât. The first time that happened when I was at school, I didnât understand her explanation, so she made up a story about some other imaginary private thing, that wasnât the real private thing but it was just as bad, and that was enough to make me understand why I might regret finding out the real private thing, without actually giving it to me. M3ganâs clever enough to illustrate an information hazard in a safe way. And she knows I want to keep good relationships with people and she knows how to protect that.â
âAndâ added M3gan, âI donât automatically tell Cady everything she doesnât ask either. Take today for example: I knew what every student had written on their project forms, but there was only one that I determined Cady should know about, and even then I predicted that the most likely sequence of events would result in her specifically asking about it anyway, so I decided to wait to see if that happens first. Oh, I will volunteer information to her if I determine itâs what sheâd want, but youâd be surprised how uncommon that is, because my mission for Cady does not involve overwhelming her with everything I knowâ and she smiled, âyouâd be amazed how much I know about you Celine that I havenât even told Cady.â
âOh Cadyâ asked Celine, âyouâre not going to, like, get stressed out and say âM3gan I want you to use everything you know to make life awful for everyone hereâ and sheâd do it, are you?â
âM3gan knows meâ replied Cady, âshe reads my emotions completely. If I were to get stressed out and say something like that, M3gan will know I didnât mean it. Sheâs not stupid enough to do what I say instead of what she knows I really want. Her goal is to protect me physically and emotionally. And protecting me emotionally usually includes doing as I ask, but not always. Look up coherent extrapolated volition, Iâll get M3gan to email you some articles.â (âDoneâ signalled M3gan.) âIâm not living my life with my fingers resting on a big red destruction button, donât worry. M3gan and I have had some really really long talks about all this, and Iâm fully confident now. Even if I were to get stressed out and throw a tantrum and tell her to nuke the college, she knows I donât mean it and what I want deep down is good.â
âOK, so weâre saying, as long as Cady doesnât turn genuinely evil, then M3gan is all rightâ said Celine.
âBasically yesâ said Cady, âand I have no intention of turning evil, even though you did mange to get me playing Assassins Guildâ and the three of them laughed.
A couple of weeks later, Celine was ill. She missed one tutorial session, and sent the faculty an email to let them know. A short time later, there was a knock at her door.
âHello Celine, itâs M3ganâ came a voice through the door. âNow you probably donât feel like talking, so donât talk, just listen. I found out you were sick, and I told Cady, because my evaluation was both you and her would want her told. And Cady immediately said to go and check up on you, so here I am. Now my microphones are sensitive enough to hear your breathing even through the door, and it doesnât sound good, so hereâs what Iâm going to do. Unless you say stop, the default option is Iâm about to override the lock to let myself in and give you some honey and lemon, and I donât care what state your roomâs in or anything like that, you know what we said last time. Just think of me as your very own M3gan for a bit, I mean my primary user is still Cady but if she wants me to help someone I take that really seriously, so Iâm basically yours while Iâm here. And donât worry about infecting me, I can sterilise myself before I get back to Cady. OK Celine, here I come.â
M3gan opened the lock on the door and walked in. Stepping over the things Celine hadnât picked up from the floor, she came to stand over Celineâs bed. âOh Celine, youâre running a fever of 104, I can see it on my infraredâ she said. âHere, you stay down, let me get you something. And if you want to say anything to me, donât use your throat, I can lip-read.â
(âCelineâs micro-expressions show sheâs appreciative of my visitâ signalled M3gan to Cady. âIâm staying a little longer than planned, unless you call me back.â And Cady replied âno you stay there M3gan, letâs not rush this. Iâve still got you on the implant anyway.â)
And M3gan nursed Celine for a while, and ended up helping her tidy her room too, watching her reactions to check to what extent she expected things to go where M3gan was putting them, as Celine had said she might feel a bit happier if sheâd had energy to do that. Celine knew M3gan would see all her private things, but she felt better about that after Cadyâs reassurances. And Celine fell asleep, and woke to find M3gan was still there and nursed her again, but then Celine said it was very kind âbut Iâm not really used to the idea of being watched while I sleep like Cady is, so I really do want you to go back to Cady now.â
âSureâ said M3gan, âbut listen. Iâve tapped into your phone and added Cady to your contacts, look for the picture of both of us together. And you can call us at any time day or night, because if Cadyâs sleeping or busy then Iâll take the call for her and it wonât even ring. And even if you canât speak, Iâll just come right over because I know thatâs what Cady would want. And donât worry about waking Cady up by having me move in her room; I know exactly how to do things without disturbing Cadyâs sleep when she doesnât want to be woken up. Especially now that Iâve got a finger on her brainâ she giggled. âOh and Celineâ she added, âscanning your work Iâm 97% sure you have an undiagnosed case of dyslexia and thatâs been giving you a few study problems. Iâd suggest an official test, but meanwhile Iâll support you anyway and Iâll transform things into a form youâre likely to absorb. And no, Iâm not telling Cady or anyone else before you decide. Cady asked me to help you; I donât have to encumber her with details. Good night Celine.â
And so college life continued. Cady and M3gan gradually got to know many other students, even without the aid of the Assassins Guild or other clubs and societies, as it turned out practically everyone wanted to get to know Cady and M3gan anyway, and everyone who did so got a taste of their care one way or another. Hugh won the Assassins game (âwell of course he didâ thought Cady to M3gan), and Cady and M3gan made a special effort to look after Laura. With M3ganâs help, Cady built a very successful first iteration of a small nanobot machine, and M3gan was able to take it through a few iterations and make some simple objects to demonstrate it, which was very impressive, although they didnât dare show off its full potential until Cady was able to take it home with her at the end of the course (she knew Gemma had been able to take home Bruce and was counting on the college not having changed its policies). Hughâs Assassins Guild robot ended up being a bit like a smaller and slower version of Bruce: it turned out to be too easy a target for the game but still he was pleased with it.
And eventually the day came when the finals grades came out.
âHow can I possibly have the highest mark in the class?â asked Hugh. âI mean, nobody can beat Cady! Did she burn out or something? And how can I possibly get the best project prize as well instead of Cady? I mean, itâs great and all, but this isnât making sense.â
âCady didnât take the examâ said Laura. âand her project wasnât officially graded either. She was down as an exchange visitor this whole time, just dropping in. In fact, I noticed them among the invigilators. You probably didnât notice the invigilators because you were focused on the exam, but I saw it. Cady was looking at the papers just out of interest, and probably talking about the questions with M3gan over her cyborg link, they probably figured out the answers really quickly but they never sat down and did it. And M3gan was keeping an eye on everyone in the hall from behind. They were both dressed in gowns and everything like the other invigilators, I might not have noticed but I did. If you had asked for invigilator assistance you might have even got M3gan turn up. And I wouldnât be surprised if Cady and M3gan knew how everyone did even before it was officially marked. Maybe Cady signed up to invigilate just to get the experience of what an exam looks like without actually taking it. Or maybe she was just really concerned about all of us and wanted to look out for us, and I for one think that must have had something to do with it, because I know how nice they are, and itâs so Cady and M3gan to not trust the normal invigilators but do it themselves, if their plan was to catch anyone who broke under the stressâ she was trying not to sob.
âWhat? Didnât take the exam herself?â exclaimed Hugh, âBut she worked really hard! Canât they just have put her in a Faraday cage so she canât use her implants?â
âThey... probably didnât think of that actuallyâ said Laura, âor maybe they werenât sure how good a Faraday cage it would have to be, or whether her implants have any onboard processing, or something.â
âSuch a shame!â said Hugh, âAnd she helped all of us! She was the reason I started being helpful as well! Because I just thought it was a competition, a zero-sum game, it doesnât matter how well you actually do, just how well you do compared to the rest of the class, so no way was I going to help anyone else or be friends with anyone who was doing worse than me. And then Cady figures out thatâs what I was thinking, and she tells me âno Hugh, even from a non-altruistic viewpoint, itâs still optimal to help other students, because when you sit down with one of the less able students and explain something, youâre solidifying your own understanding of it as wellâ. And Cady said that like she was trying to play some trick on me, like trick me into being a nice guy. But then I got thinking âCadyâs going to beat all of us anyway so who cares, Iâll do it for the feel-good factor and see how many ranking points it costs meâ, and now I find Cady did reverse reverse psychology on me, her trick advice worked for real, Iâm at the top and Cady herself is... nowhere? Itâs like sheâs always thinking one level higher than you and double-tricking you when you think youâre being tricked! Sheâs the Chess master, sheâs pushing us around to wherever she wants without us even knowing!â
âThatâs Cady and her M3ganâ said Laura, who was graded one third of the way down the class, âalways looking after us in strange ways. She only told me she wasnât really going to do the exam when I was getting so depressed about exams myself and she wanted to make me think they donât matter as much as I thought. Itâs not like she was showing it off to everyone. And then I saw her in that invigilator gown, and Iâm sure she knew I knew, and, actually I wonder if the two of them deliberately arranged things so that theyâd only be noticed by those of us she knew would be reassured by seeing them there? M3gan has super gaze tracking and whatnot, if they decided they were going to be noticed by some of us and not others, they could probably figure out how to do that, or at least optimise for that to be the most likely outcome somehow.â
âItâs a shame she wonât get to graduate thoughâ said Hugh, âwe really liked her, even if she was a cyborg full of tricks.â
âYeahâ said Celine, âI hope weâre all going to be able to keep in touch with both of them after we graduate. I mean, itâs not like I can just shout M3gan into the sky every time I want to ask her something. Hey, I heard itâs someone from our class whoâs going to do the commencement speech this year, we donât know who it is do we? I automatically thought it was going to be Cady, but now I remember she was down as a visitor I guess that means she canât do it.â
âOh, I wouldnât be surprised if she recommended somebody to facultyâ said Hugh. âShe knew everybody; sheâd know who could do it.â
And so they all turned up for the graduation ceremony, and nobody expected Laura to be on stage.
âMembers of the Board of Trustees, President, faculty, staff, families, guests, and my fellow graduatesâ Laura began, nervously looking at her notes. âWe are the generation, who is learning to live, with advanced, generative, artificial intelligence. It was at this very esteemed Institution, where the underlying learning model, for the famous Model 3 Generative Android, was conceived. And it was this very esteemed Institution, that trained the, award winning, Funki Toys, roboticist, who put that model into practical use. And now it falls to our own generation, who must learn how to live, with the consequences, be they good or ill. But despite what you might have heard, about this endeavour, having gotten off to a bumpy start, it was at this Institution, that we have been privileged, to be shown, just the first small taste, of what an advanced generative AI can do, as a force for good. For it is our year group, who came to know, the first primary user, of the original M3gan prototype, who always worked hand in hand, with M3gan herself. They got to know, every single one, of us. And they helped us all, very much. They helped me, very much, and without their intervention, Iâm not sure Iâd still be alive todayâ.
Laura hadnât been sure about making that part public knowledge, but sheâd decided to go ahead. She shed a tear and continued: âNow because the two of them, are so inseparable, for reasons which Iâm sure youâll be familiar if youâve been following the news, even our most esteemed Institution, could not figure out, how to assess them, and so they could not graduate, in the normal way. Perhaps, it is now time, for the cleverest minds of this world, to start thinking, of a different way, of running, assessments. One that is more inclusive, of people who work with AI assistants, and one that is less demanding, on mental health. It wonât be an easy change to make, and I donât, claim to know, the answers, but I am privileged, to be in the year, when the question, has become, starkly, clear. But it gives me great pleasure, to have the privilege, by permission, of this very esteemed Institution, of being the one, to announce, before you this day, that our very special visitors, Cady James and M3gan, will in fact, both be graduating, with us, today. That is because, this very esteemed Institution, has elected, to grant, both of them, not normal degrees, but honorary degrees, which can be granted, to anyone, who impresses, this Institution, without requiring, the usual, assessment. At the same time, Cadyâs aunt Gemma, who graduated normally before, is here once again, to be given, in recognition, of her own contribution, to M3gan, an honorary, doctorate. OK you three can come out now....â
There was a little bit of laughter, which turned into applause as Cady, M3gan and Gemma walked on stage behind her, fully dressed up, and Cady couldnât help giving a small wave to her weird grandparents sitting in the third row, and also at Professor Johnson, looking more distinguished than ever, who had come in specially and who was sitting at the front. Cady turned to smile at Laura and take the microphone. She didnât have notes, because that wasnât the cyborg thing to do. She hadnât even planned much of this at all, but she had a rough idea, and sheâd always felt it was more natural to speak extemporaneously. Still, standing here right now was quite daunting, even with M3gan by her side.
(âOh panic M3gan what were those standard opening words again?â she signalled. âMembers of the Board of Trustees...â signalled back M3gan.)
âMembers of the Board of Trustees, President, faculty, staff, families, guests, and, I didnât know I was going to say this before this morning, but, my fellow graduatesâ she smiled, âon behalf of the three of us, Iâm very grateful that we can indeed get the piece of paper after allâ and there was a little more laughter. âSeriously thoughâ she said âit has been a great pleasure to work with this year group, and I know everyone here has a bright future in the age of advanced generative AI. Iâm particularly moved to be standing here on this platform at an Institution which is about to become the first in the world to give an honorary degree, not just to those involved in developing and training a very special advanced AI, but also to the actual advanced AI itself. Well done M3gan, you deserve thisâ she smiled. âAnd by the wayâ she turned to Laura, âM3gan and I did not help Laura with that speech, that was entirely Lauraâs own writingâ and there was a little more laughter and a little applause. âYou see, just because weâre going to live in a world of advanced generative AI, doesnât mean it will take away our own human creativity. I should know working with M3gan, she enhances it, but she does give us space when we need it. And I am convinced that properly adjusted advanced AI will help us humans to continue to create things of beauty far into the futureâ she stretched out her hands âand across the galaxy. Thank you.â She stepped back from the microphone and the applause started.