Progressive Factor II: Lacrimosa Of A Reaper

Southward Bound

At the same time, his view of Kizmel changed with time. Not her looks - not after his accidental encounter with her in the third-floor baths in the dark elf camp - but what she is. His entire life has been designed for him to inherit the family's technology company, especially the dream his father possesses for artificial intelligence.

AI has been on the rise since 2017, with great implementation in today's society. These AI have specific programs inserted into them, functioning in various capacities that fulfill their design. From phone shogi apps to economics to medical care, it wouldn't be hard to find an AI working with humans. But the dream of Jaymes' father has not been realized yet: the creation of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, better known as a bottom-up AI.

In theory, they differ from other AI (called top-down) because no specific function is tied to the AI. Instead, the AI learns from square one, much like humans. Once that development is achieved, then AI can be applied to a broader array of applications. Before that fateful moment on the third floor, Jaymes didn't think he'd see his dad's vision potentially fulfilled in a video game.

He also didn't expect he'll store all of his father's lectures on bottom-up AI in his rebellious memory.

Kizmel's mannerisms are so humanlike that if she didn't have an NPC indicator above her head, Jaymes would assume she was a player in her twenties. He's drinking herbal tea with the bane of his younger years, enthralled with her internal design. Why is it that the hundreds of NPCs they encountered behave like he would expect them to, but this single elven woman - and a couple of other elves - are different? How did Akihiko Kayaba and Argus develop something like this?

No, how did the Cardinal System develop this? The program that operates SAO to the point of self-reliance is not common knowledge, but while he may not have been keen on the tech industry, Jaymes heard plenty about SAO's operating system. After all, it's unlikely Kayaba and Argus are managing the game, but they did develop the Cardinal System and SAO around it. How much system stress and statistical data is running through Cardinal that it has room to develop a couple of high-functioning NPCs? In other words, how did they create the ability for Kizmel to converse with us on a humanlike level?

Jaymes only has three thoughts. The first is that the AI is learning as it goes. That correlates with how Kizmel learns new things from the humans, such as their language or when they speak out of terms as gamers. But Kizmel usually has sensible answers, so her AI has prior knowledge.

In lore, it makes sense humans and elves interacted prior to Aincrad's formation, but it wouldn't explain how Kizmel is how she is. It doesn't look like the two races interact nowadays. So the only other explanation is that the AI learned its ways another time.

There's a pressing discrepancy that Jaymes never brought up. While Kirito and Mito took on the Elf War Campaign in the beta as well as the official release, both were surprised by Kizmel's manners. That suggests that the beta version of the elven companions wasn't as high-functioning as they are now...which suggests Cardinal used data from the beta to create these NPCs. A thousand humans and their interactions with NPCs stockpiled dialogue data in the course of a month. Simulate that again by having the AIs "talk" to each other, and you could develop special AIs like Kizmel with outstanding conversation abilities.

That was done in two months. SAO now has ten times the players and must've amassed ten times the data. What if the same principle was applied to AI and had them learn and interact over a year, maybe a decade or two? Time would need to be simulated, of course, but to the AIs, time would pass normally. If the development of a human could be replicated in an AI, the dream of a true AGI is within reach.