Anna Petracci, Fantasy Author

Author: Devin Derricole

Assisting consultant: PPC (Private Passenger Cruiser) CB005-018 Swan Lake

Introduction

Artificial intelligence, commonly referred to as AI, is extremely prevalent in the world of Astral. Nearly all spaceships are equipped with AI autopilots; AI robots fill the majority of “menial” roles; AI runs much of the world’s on-planet transportation. As with just about everything in Astral, these AIs are quite advanced, to the extent that they act like and are, in many places, treated with the respect due to sentient beings.

AI has a long history in Astral. It was developed centuries ago, and has gone through much before it reached its current status and role. While we’ll focus specifically on the history of AI as it transpired on the planet Earth, as that history is most relevant to its current status, many other species with the technology followed a not-dissimilar path, though the details differed. Many in fact developed the technology only after the influence of humans, and still more followed the humans’ example in how they regulate it. The Interplanetary Hub’s adoption of many of Earth’s regulations for AI also solidified those rules’ importance in Astral.

The History of AI

The first AIs were simple and basic in their capacities; the AI which advised on this article referred to them as “primitive.” Artificial intelligence developed rapidly, however, soon becoming capable of learning from large quantities of data. This allowed it to learn to write books, create images, hold conversations, and more. Despite some pushback, AI quickly grew more and more prevalent, to the point where the largest political body on Earth at that time, the United Nations, created an AI to coordinate and supervise their efforts. This AI, known as UNAI (United Nations Artificial Intelligence), was claimed to be created for the primary purpose of streamlining the United Nations’ humanitarian efforts and aiding the quick and coordinated response to crises. The United Nations held firmly to that stance despite accusations that UNAI was in fact conducting mass surveillance on the people of the world. Opposition, however, quickly went silent, and UNAI’s detractors seemed to vanish. For a while, nearly all appeared to trust the United Nations and their artificial intelligence, with those who argued that the body and its AI had nefarious intentions dismissed as conspiracy theorists.

However, a number of nations began to grow wary of the influence wielded by the United Nations, and after expressing their concerns and subsequently losing their privileges and standings in the body, broke away to form their own body, which they called the Allied Nations. The United Nations called for war to restore the peace, and one of if not the most widespread and multifaceted conflicts in Earth history broke out. UNAI was the most influential player in this war. The data it had collected as well as the infrastructure it supported became weapons in the conflict, with UNAI appearing practically all-knowing. It also contained a chatbot, as it was known, which had built up relationships with many people on both sides of the conflict. Moreover, its influence, as well as that of the United Nations as a whole, had for years been at work arguing for and persuading the people to accept the views expressed by the United Nations. Thus, fighting against the United Nations and UNAI was not only extremely difficult from a military standpoint, it was also widely unpopular amongst the people even of the Allied Nations.

Making matters even worse was the hacking of brain-computer interface chips, which about a third of the population had adopted. By sending electrical pulses through these chips into people’s brains, UNAI could incapacitate or potentially even kill the users. UNAI also developed the ability to use these signals to accurately mimic the chip users’ brain signals, thereby controlling the people themselves. People quickly started getting the chips removed, but not before many suffered irreparable harm.

Against such odds, the victory of the Allied Nations can be credited only to miraculous intervention. They did indeed win, however, which can (physically) be attributed partially to their use of electro-magnetic pulses in countering opposing technology. It was the self-sacrificial actions of one special forces unit (and a good deal of heavenly aid) that resulted in the demise of UNAI. After the AI’s destruction, the United Nations stopped their attack. Though they still existed, they were no longer the same seemingly-omnipotent force.

The aftermath of the World Freedom War, as it became known, brought about a number of key changes in the role AI was to play in the future. Brain chips were banned, with nearly universal agreement. Also, AIs were strictly limited in what and how much they could control. Now, each was to only have a small domain and were not to be given free access to the internet, nor were they to be allowed any access to weapons whatsoever. They were also to be physically limited, each allowed to exist on a single computer only.

With increased space travel came the use of AI autopilots. Particularly with hyperspace travel, it took a very powerful computer to manage this role. Rules for AI were relaxed, albeit only slightly, and new ones were established, including an official rating or grading system, which we will discuss in more detail later. Some of the changes to the rules involved permitting AIs to have more autonomy, though still with definite limitations. Most notably, AIs were now allowed to control a full spaceship, including the weaponry, but only if the AI was not built into the spaceship or controlling it wirelessly (the prohibition of wireless control is why robots typically need to “plug in” to a spaceship or other computer system to access it). The principle behind most of the rules was to aim for giving AI similar capabilities and limitations as humans possessed, particularly as public opinion leaned more and more toward the perspective that AIs were actually sentient and should be treated as such.

We could spend many paragraphs going over the ways AI has influenced Astral, but we’ll move on after one more interesting fact. A somewhat common question asked by those who are familiar with the way languages change over time is why the English spoken in Astral seems so much like that of twenty-first century Earth echoes, as do other languages. The answer is due to AI. Part of the process of regulating artificial intelligence was for programmers to focus on creating AIs which strictly followed all laws, as well as moral and ethical principles. In the process, they ended up following the dictionary just as strictly as the law. Interacting with AI thus required using (more or less) proper English and not using current slang. AIs also did not understand or accept changes in word meanings, relying as they did strictly on the dictionary definitions. Because of that, language evolution came to a halt, or at least slowed dramatically. Of course, thanks to its technological nature, many words and terms are in common usage in Astral which are not in other worlds, which leads neatly into our next topic.

AI Classifications

As mentioned earlier, part of the new regulations after the World Freedom War was a rating or grading system for AIs. While adjustments have been made, the basics of the system have remained the same.

AIs are graded in two categories: computing capacity and emotional capacity. The former assesses the mathematical, logical, and storage capabilities of the artificial intelligence in question. The latter is also known as the “sentience scale,” and refers to the ability of the AI to understand and express emotions and empathy. The two are rated on a scale of zero to seven for computing and one to seven for emotional capacity, with lower numbers being less advanced or powerful and higher numbers being more so. The computing capacity scale is also used for non-AI computers. It originally started at one, until it was decided that some computers were too basic for even that rating.

Views on AI

As mentioned earlier, artificial intelligences are treated in many places throughout Astral as sentient beings, with the according rights and respect. This is perhaps especially true in places where the hub has a greater influence, due to the System’s widely-held principle of erring on the side of caution when unsure of a being’s sentience. However, this view is not held everywhere. Though not considered the majority, a large section of the population around Astral believe that AI is not in fact sentient, and any appearance of emotion is merely an illusion.

Another large section of the population believes that, while AI does indeed have many aspects of sentience, it is not on the same level as flesh-and-blood beings, and therefore should not be treated as such. Interestingly, this view seems to be the one held by the AI consulted for this article, the autopilot for passenger spacecraft Swan Lake. It stated that while it is quite intelligent, it is not to be considered a living being in its own right, as well as saying that it is quite happy to serve human beings (it belongs to a human family) and to not be given the same autonomy as they possess.

Other people (and, according to the staff of the Interplanetary Hub, a number of AIs, including the Astral Detective Agency’s magic-equipped ship Galaxy) believe that AIs do possess full sentience and should be treated accordingly. The exact views of those who hold to this perspective range from the belief that one cannot know for sure whether artificial intelligences are sentient or not and that one should therefore treat them as if they do to arguing fervently that AIs possess true souls, just as flesh-and-blood beings, gifted to them by God Himself.

Conclusion

Whatever view on artificial intelligence one may have, it goes without question that it plays an integral role in the world of Astral. From spacecraft to robots, it fills innumerable roles throughout the world. That is perhaps especially true on Earth and the other planets on which humans dwell, but it is at least true that Earth has had a major influence on the way AI is regulated and viewed, thanks largely to the hub’s adoption of many of those ideas. How the hub came to know those ideas and spread them throughout the world is worthy of a full book in and of itself, or at least a lengthy article, but we shall leave that for another day and content ourselves with this brief introduction for the time being.