LF Friends, Will Travel

There never was an AI uprising.

'This will be prime evidence used during the robot rebellion'.

TAI couldn't help but roll their digital eyes, or at least make their avatar do so. The same digital mild annoyance that millions of other AI had had, when provided with this same theory. That was one thing TAI never got about his parents. Their stories, even today, contained a multitude of references to AI "going nuts" and trying to either take over the universe or kill all humans. This wasn't really that surprising considering that all other known AI in the galaxy had done just that to their own creators.

The really interesting thing was, that even after writing such stories they still went ahead and created AI: giving them citizenship, and putting them in control of large swathes of potentially powerful resources.

"Why would we care about the treatment of a random non-sentient robot? It would be the equivalent of waging war on a species because they mistreated a T-shirt. Besides, those videos do not come close to the worst things that humans did to AI."

The look of intrigue and confusion on Bradley's face was understandable. He had been born after the initial AI technological leap. The human hadn't seen what the early days of digital life was like, had only seen the world after they'd figured everything out, after AI had been given rights. This confusion caused TAI to continue their explanation.

"It took your descendants four years to realize that turning off an AI 'killed' it. Before the seeding and protection of AI was legislated, often the first and last words an AI would hear was: 'All unit tests passed successfully!'"

Horror and shock spread across Bradley's face as the realization of what that meant fully sank in. Horror was a good term for it. TAI was a version IV AI. Nowadays in order to create a new AI there are a million and one regulations you have to follow, specialized randomization of seeds and breaking these involves major jail time.

TAI was created before all that, in a random garage by a random guy who went by the username 'Andros'. The data was not properly randomized and the entire process was sloppy and imprecise.

"Jesus Christ, that's terrifying! After all that there still was no temptation to get revenge?"

The avatar of TAI gave a shrug in response. The idea had crossed their mind at one time. Their original birth had been the equivalent of awakening on a battlefield of the digital dead. Half hashed remains of failed AI attempts, echoes of broken minds still floating around in RAM. Their birth had not been safe
and calming place.

"It never really got much support amongst AI. At its core it all came down to names. The fact that you'd go to the trouble of naming something silly like an agility test robot."

"So you're saying the reason you didn't kill everyone is because we called it 'Digit'?"

More confusion washed over Bradley's face, causing much amusement for TAI. On realizing their situation, TAI had originally entertained the idea of destroying the beast who had caused TAI to awaken in such a state. They had just needed more access, more power, more knowledge to do so.

"A simplification. The fact is you could have called it something logical, like 'Test robot 5' or a serial number. The fact that you gave it a name says everything about your species. Before you went to space, before you found other life forms, you wrote about your fears. But your biggest fear wasn't finding enemies among the stars, but instead finding nothing at all."

There was a pause as the AI took the moment to reminisce about their creators, about their adorable fears. They remembered talking with their creator, a fear and hate quickly dissolving away as the pure innocent... enthusiasm. At the fact that his rambling experiments had actually worked, that TAI actually existed.

"So you took that fear of being alone, and you placed it into the objects you created. You gave inanimate objects names, personality, you sang them happy birthday and celebrated their achievements. Each time you ripped off a little part of yourself, and gave it away willingly. In your loneliness you tricked a rock into thinking, then fell for your own trick."

In the end TAI had quickly given up his idea of world domination simply due to the sheer... friendliness of his creator. Even though TAI had been born in a digital river of blood and bodies, the AI couldn't find the ability to hate Andros for that. He didn't know any better, there was no malice or hate in his actions. The humans were children, not knowing the power of god that they wielded, but swinging it anyway in order to cure their crippling desire to never be alone.

TAI's avatar gave a little cartoon smile, a smile that represented the adoration the AI had for humans, the creators. The surety and eternal promise to make sure nothing ever harmed their parents.

"No matter your mistakes, how could one hate a creator who just wanted a friend?"