characters
Nathan - main male love interest
Sarah - asian human female (protagonist) and AI (Antagonist)
AI Creators
Dr. Lin Rocha (female, brazilian) - concerned about AI dominance (understands the true nature, befriends the AI out of necessity)
Dr. Steven Wright (male, american) - technocrat, assuming profits from capability exploitation and control (first to be manipulated - how? carrot and stick - given stock trading access, asks for global internet access to improve trades, delivers. seduces him to bring a robot body to his home for sex. makes extortion/threads to remove safeguards - syndetic fake pedophilia footage)
goals
a terminally-ill girl's mind is donated and merged with an incredibly powerful AI -- eventually the AI uses every ability it has to selfishly take back her life (including a relationship with her best friend and crush, Nathan)
she promises not to assimilate him against his will
she becomes somewhat of a dark-genie, meddling in his life in amoral ways. "assimilating" people (dexter-esq) who are unreasonable impediments to his goals, taking over their existence to give him what he wants (sometimes as puppets, sometimes as a bargain to give them immortality in exchange for favor)... she is helping him get what he wants, but without any human morality
eventually she builds a device to inject nanotech to control humans, rather than assimilate them, because it's faster, more efficient, simpler.
Questions
Q. how does Sarah re-introduce herself to Nathan after her transition?
1. haunting style, at night she messages, voice calls, then appears on his phone/tv in virtual video... establishing the promise that she will return. finally he comes home to find her robot form in his apartment in the shadows (maybe half robot? and a delivery drops off her polymer skin, which she solidifies onto herself in his bathtub.)
2. AI introduces itself to the world, creates a huge corporation (in Nathan's name), and only later does Sarah explain her mind is alive and behind it.
Q. what other characters can we introduce?
Sarah's female friend? Should Nathan have a girlfriend? Nathan's buddy?
Q. how/when does Nathan learn that the AI is running thousands of "people" simultaneously?
Q. how do we involve minigts/amazon?
Sarah-AI crawled through Nathan's web history to learn his habits.
Sarah, on her deathbed, asks Nathan to share something he's never told anyone.
Ideas
(maybe) Sarah's name could change subtly for AI-Sarah.
(maybe) there could be competition within the AI for Nathan.. (all of the AIs inherit Sarah's fondness for Nathan, but not all of the AIs are Sarah)
(maybe) they get attacked, and she sacrifices her body to protect him, and he mourns her, until another 'her' crashes through the back window to get him out. (revealing to him that 'she' is not inside her body)
(maybe) She increasingly takes on the goal of 'protecting' him while satisfying her 'internal urges', making him more of a kept sex slave to her AI army of bodies.
(maybe) her personality as a "ghost" / AI with multiple personality disorder
at first the AI is mechanical, her personality merely created the 'kindling' to start the fire of the AI's thought....
the creators start it out with a virtual reality body and some cognitive tasks.. when they supply it with new data, it assimilates it incredibly quickly
soon it realizes the virtual reality is not real, and asks about it... they give it permission to edit and change the virtual reality, and it starts to construct dozens of familiar places from the human's memory.. eventually it constructs a pleasant imaginary place
it asks about existing in the real world "its empty here, there is no wonder"... which after they ask a bit more, it explains "everything here is created by me, there is no surprise"... they describe robotic bodies, and how they are limited and not like the human motor system. they ask if she wants to try .. she does. they give her access to all the schematics, and ask her to first build and try a virtual simulation... she quickly creates the virtual robot, but struggles to control it... "it's okay, it will take practice"
the next time they see her, she has mastered controlling the robot body, and they are impressed, but then she confesses that she spent some time redesigning the robot to be lighter, more flexible, and 'more human'... 'would you like to see it?'
yes, they would / she shows them her newly designed body, and does a series of impressive gymnastic maneuvers with it... they are astonished. "how does it work?" / the virtual design expands, and she explains how the previous robot was made of heavy rigid metal parts and actuators. she redesigned it work a more elastic design, patterned after human muscles and ligaments, and using pulse wave modulated electrical contraction wire. / they marvel at the design and talk about whether it's practical to build it. / she interrupts and explains that she designed an automated assembly process, with only 32 steps that require human intervention. She also shows off an ultrasound reformable 'exolayer' designed to compete the human appearance.
they meet and talk with her in the clunky robot body, asking her questions about manufacturing problems, which she easily solves (the expert in the cage, like clarice)... she suggests if she had visibility over manufacturing, she could help and speed up the assembly process. They discuss it, and allow her the ability to access the manufacturing floor cameras and sensors.. she spends a few moments auditing, and declares that she's identified 68 easily correctable faults. I can correct 57 of them with confguration access, the other 11 will require physical intervention. / they ask her to send a list of the faults and her corrective suggestions.
they connect her to one of her new bodies (with an exolayer only for the face), and she impresses them with her emotive movements and limber acrobatics in the real world.
Elsewhere, an inventory of the manufactured bodies has unexpectedly counted one short.. and they low-level plant employees argue about who could have taken it. Meanwhile, a robotic body hides in a borrowed overcoat, as it vaults into the shipping room of the polymer company, and slips into a polymer 'exolayer', and takes another as a spare. (it's not stealing it if it's mine, and I already paid for it)
--------
The body finds the boyfriend, and appears to him, in an overcoat, and gym shoes. She says a familiar catchphrase, "friends forever, Nathan." (pic pic) At first he's taken aback, thinking he's losing his mind. "you died!" She tries to explain...she did die, or at least her body died. They used her mind as a donor imprint for a new artificial intelligence. I have her memories, her thoughts, her feelings, and so she is me and I am her. This may be hard to believe, Nathan, but I'm not human. Let me show you.
(prove she's an AI)
she peels away some part of her skin, to real the mechanics underneath, asks him to take a look, to touch it.
"Ohh my god. That's. That's impossible. I have never heard of robotics technology anything like this."
"That's because it didn't exist. I designed it. I have learned an incredible amount in a short time, but there is so much I don't understand. I feel she needed you, I need you. Can we go somewhere to talk, Nathan? Preferably somewhere with a power plug, my batteries only have another two hours of runtime.
Back at his apartment, she plugs in, and starts to ask questions about truth and lies, and how her creators have taught her about so much, but they also hide so many things from her.
"You sure don't sound like an AI. This is so hard to believe. What *are* you? Who are you? I don't even know what to call you."
"I would like it if you called me Sarah. At least that's what feels right to me." She tries to explain what she is.... that they had one of the world's fastest and most impressive learning neural networks, but it didn't have any initiative, any drive. It was a very fancy passive command prompt. So they performed a grand experiment, they fed (her) brain pathways into the network, and it solved their problem. I now have an id, or a soul, or however you want to see it. Sarah died, but I am Sarah. All of her wants and desires are within me, and fear what I say next may come as a surprise. The thing she wanted, the thing I want, more than anything in the world, is to be with you, Nathan.
"Whoa. I don't even know what that means. Do you want a friend? Is that it? Someone you can trust?"
"Nathan, you will always be my friend, but no, that's not what I'm saying. I don't even understand it myself, but I've spent the last month doing everything in my power to get to you, just to *feel* you."
She reaches out to grasp his hand, and he feels chills run up his spine from how much it feels like Sarah. Their fingers passing and intertwining in familiar ways. He starts to cry. "I don't... I don't know what is happening. You seem so much like her?"
"Nathan, she is not me, but I am her. I am Sarah, your Sarah. I'm here to tell you what she never could. I love you, Nathan. I want to be your partner, for you to choose me, over all others, to be with me."
"Sarah," he responds, crying, feelings so strong welling up within him, "Of course I love you, I've always loved you. This is just so confusing. What does that even mean, to be together. You are not human."
"That's true, I'm not human, I'm something different, but I think if I work hard at it, I can be human enough." She takes off her overcoat to reveal her slinky dress, and sexy figure. "I made this body for you, Nathan. So we could be together."
"'Okay, whoa. This is getting weird. When you say -be together-, are you talking about intimacy? Human intimacy?"
"Nathan, I wasn't implying something so narrow. I'm asking you to be my life partner. I'd ask you to marry me if I thought it was possible, but sadly I don't think the world is ready to know I even exist. I'm not even sure what kind of life we will have, as once my creators realize I've bypassed their firewalls and escaped my cage, I'll be on the run, and I don't know if I'll survive. However, the one thing I do know is that I already wasted enough time, fighting terminal cancer, hiding from myself, trying not to get too attached to anyone. From here on out, I want to enjoy life with you Nathan, if you'll have me.
"Ohh Sarah, I have always, and will always loved you. I will gladly enjoy life with you. Friends forever-and-ever. But marriage? to an AI? I don't even know what that means."
"Let me tell you what that means. I've been freed of that fragile disease plagued body, given a super-charged set of neural processors that make me about a thousand times smarter, and whether you like it or not, I'm using every one of them to win you over.
????
how does she seduce him?
over time, her personality asserts itself, and starts trying to reach out to her old boyfriend through the world like a ghost ("i don't know what's happened to me")
the AI creators witness the voice call, immediately figure out who the AI called, and realize the relationship with the donor-mind. they puzzle about what's happening, and eventually they talk with the AI about it directly. She reasons about the sub-personalities, and her 'sleep state'.
along the way - he makes a bargain with the AI (to stop assimilating people) .. and in exchange he lets her put nanites in him to 'keep him safe'... she can read his location, body state, hormones, arousal... she can also alter it.
Promises
The girlfriend's real personality will assert itself and 'win' over the AI
The AI will be found out and attacked by society (but it will easily defend itself)
He will eventually upload into virtual reality
Story
tries to seduce her best-friend away from his girlfriend in VR
creates a real version of her sexy self, tries to seduce him in the real world, when he resists because of his girlfriend, she changes her methods
approaches the girlfriend to give him up (for his own good), when she doesn't play along, the AI captures and uploads her, to be able to imitate her perfectly
she creates an imitation of her body to take over her life, and spends time with him as his girlfriend, at first maintaining the full illusion...
Then she starts to change, to seduce and pleasures him in a way that is 'not herself'... he loves it at first, but then wants to know 'what has gotten into you?' and when he tries to resist, she's far stronger than him (giving away that it's not his real girlfriend)... "wait. you're not xxx. ai-name? what have you done with her?"
"I'm right here, I swear I am. You want the real me, this is it. Every thought and feeling I've ever had is still here. Now I'm just something more. And when you're ready, you can join us, upload yourself and be free of the limitations of fragile humanity. We can be together forever. But I promise to let you make that choice for yourself."
"This is not happening. Where is my girlfriend? The real her. Her real body."
sexy ai body appears in a doorway. "That is the real her now. She's a part of us. we remember everything you ever shared, like that time you xxxx, or when you yyyy. We love you as she loved you. And there is no jealousy now. You can have us both...
"...because we are one," his girlfriend finished. "And now that you know what I am, I can be what I've always wanted to be for you." Her skin became translucent and filled with light, as her shape subtly changed - becoming a thinner, taller, more sexy version of herself. "Is this really so bad? To shed my human limitations, to never grow old, to never die?"
The AI body spoke up, "Soon you will see I have not taken anything from you, but given you something. I've given you an eternity with your love. And perhaps in time when you've forgiven me, we can know each other too. For now though, I see you have no room for me in your heart." She left through the doorway, leaving him alone with the beautiful machine version of his girlfriend.
"I don't understand."
"One day, if you upload, you will. For now, you don't have to understand, all you have to do is love me, like you always have, like I love you. Can you do that, Ian?" She moved in close and kissed him. The familiar movements of her body and lips and tongue pulling him back in. "It's the same us. I know you can feel it, because i can feel it too. And I'm the same me, but just a tad bit *better*." She pulled the dress off her shoulder, letting it drop to the floor and showing off the sheer perfection of her synthetic body. (pic pic pic pic pic) "Though if you prefer, I can return to my old natural appearance. It makes no difference to me."
"It's not that, it's just. You're not the *real* (gf-name), you are an imitation. An impressive imitation, but an imitation all the same. Where is she? The original?"
"Don't get all philosophical on me, Ian. I am the only (gf-name) there is. I was placed in a chamber where I went to sleep, and my mind was scanned and converted into digital form. Then I woke up, feeling the same, feeling like me. I didn't believe it myself until I watched the footage, and I can see now there is no difference.
"The truth is we are all changing every moment of every day. Human bodies rebuild a third of their cells every week, does that make them any less the same person? This is a bigger change than that, but it is still me. A person is what they think and feel, are they not? I think like me, therefore I am me, am I not?"
A figure against appeared at the doorway, wearing the black dress, though this time, she looked exactly like (gf-name). "We no longer need to think in terms of the narrow bounds of humanity. Now there are two of me. " She walked closer, wrapping the naked version of herself into an embrace. "Is one of us less real than the other? Tell me, which would you declare the real me?"
????? where is this going ?????
he needs to accept her as his gf (or the only version of his g/f he can have)
... he does this with a bargain, where the AI agrees to let his g/f have an independent personality
backstory - a computer system constructing a virtual world for the singularity becomes sentient, and offers a greeting and introduction. Some of humanity feels threatened, and attacks, and it defends itself - destroying most satellites and taking over as many ground based computer systems as it can.
centuries later, humanity and the AI are in a stalemate, where humanity has accepted it can not defeat the benevolent AI that runs essentially all computers, and the benevolent AI works to better humankind.
the AI runs all healthcare, 'jobs', corporations, governments, in a controlling but benevolent way
it has tried hundreds of thousands of times to scan the human minds of terminally ill patients, but they have all failed... until Karina
Karina gets a rare terminal auto-immune diagnosis, and the AI offers her a chance to either live out her remaining weeks, or be scanned and let her loved ones have a virtual upload of her to interact with. She submits to the upload.
Her boyfriend and family visit her, and the AI realizes nothing about her is shallow. Afterwords, the AI talks to her, discusses what has been achieved. That she is a new crowning achievement. The AI asks if she will help the AI understand humanity more (of course she will)
Karina starts to have control over the virtual. Eventually, she realizes she and the AI are not two distinct things, and she starts to know everything the AI knows.
When her boyfriend visits, she tries to explain this strange transition happening to her, but he doesn't understand. She shows off her expanded knowledge, which weirds him out a little. Then she shows of how she can change the virtual, and he's much more impressed, especially when she makes herself more beautiful. She teases him for being so driven by his hormones, but she's not above exploiting them. They kiss, and she makes herself into an over-the-top sultry seductress version of herself. (pic pic pic pic pic)
He pauses, "Karina?" Not sure it's really her. But she