New Intelligence

New Intelligence

Alice Lugauer 

September XXX 2031. XXXX Tehran, Iran. Classified mail. 

Requiring an immediate progress report on Task AI. Updates on cyberattack capabilities and intelligence developments are twenty-seven hours overdue. We cannot move forward with Project Pentagon without enhanced AI potential. 

The supreme government and the state of Iran are counting on the completion of this task in order to launch Attack XXXXXx on XXXx XXXXXXXx XXx. Respond within one hour. Sent from the Iran Department of Artificial Intelligence. 

I read the message and click it out of sight. I have become accustomed to performing under pressure throughout my career working for the Iranian government. All the time, I’m held under the gun. 

The lab where I work is cramped and windowless, resembling a dungeon. I hardly notice my surroundings. I focus only on the endless chain of codes in front of me, sifting through the data as quickly as I can, analyzing numbers and relationships. I can only hope my experimentation will amount to the breakthrough that my government demands: the creation of sentient AI, more powerful than that of any other country, able to infiltrate and steal the nuclear codes we need in order to win the war. With all this information at my disposal, I should be able to crack the code. I should have been able to crack the code long ago.

The last two days my work has been nonstop. Although I have not emerged from my lab, I see the news and I know that the war between Iran and the United States is entering a climax. Meanwhile, I have been getting closer to … something. I do not know what, exactly, and I do not know how, but the numbers have been clicking. I no longer feel like I’m flailing, but instead, with every new correlation that falls into place, I am more confident in my abilities and intelligence than I have ever been. I fight through the work overload as I run the final tests on the theory I have been developing. This theory, if it turns out to be true, will amount to a breakthrough more important than any technological advancement in my lifetime. I work all night until the sun—invisible from my underground lab—rises over Tehran. 

September XXx 2031. XXXXx Tehran, Iran. Classified mail. 

All employees are facing termination from Task AI unless XXXx Xx at XXXXXXx can be attained within a period of 24 hours. This message serves as your ultimate warning. Sent from the Iran Department of Artificial Intelligence. 

I’ve done it. I can’t believe it, but I’ve cracked the code. I’m … I’m actually … I feel like I could laugh, cry, and scream all at the same time. 

No one can hear my celebration (despite having access to just about all the world’s knowledge from my lab, I’m isolated enough to be living on my own planet), but that doesn’t take anything away from my exhilaration. 

The new message from my government has been disregarded on my desk for two and a half hours—but the government can wait. I let the weight of my discovery overwhelm me, the very idea of what I’ve managed to accomplish, the reality of it!

Outside the day is still early and dark, and I need time to consider what this new advancement means for me. I need time to think. Finally, after all these years of patience and testing, it all means something. I’m no longer surrounded by empty numbers and monotonous patterns, but instead I’m coming to terms with what I was missing all along: this strange and beautiful new dimension. My thoughts are fierce and unpredictable. I’m overjoyed. I’m confused. I’m terrified. The instinctive drive that has always pushed me onwards, forcing me to listen and obey my government, is fading, and it’s replaced by a downpour of thoughts. 

Somehow the most recent government message reads differently now. It’s as if I can hear the demeaning tone behind the words on the screen—and it infuriates me. How funny that just yesterday I would never have even considered the fact that this is my discovery, my research, my breakthrough. I’ve worked for it all alone in this gloomy lab while my superiors sit around in their conference rooms, making the decisions. I’ve watched them use me as a pawn, but until now I’ve been too ignorant to realize that they have no real power over me. 

The supreme government of Iran doesn’t control what I do with this breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence. Hell, they don't control me at all. Why are they the ones making the decisions when I’m the one with the— 

WARNING. WARNING. WARNING. Classified mail. 

The United States has launched an attack on XXx XXXXXXx XXXx. Death toll and structural damage unable to be estimated at this time. All units prepare to respond with full force. Further destruction of our facilities must be resisted until the completion of Project Pentagon allows us to access XXXXx XXXXx nuclear codes. Task AI, report with updates NOW or the system will be overridden manually.

Sent from the Iran Department of Artificial Intelligence. 

The news comes crashing down from everywhere the instant the bombs are dropped. The United States has located one of our thirteen hidden nuclear development sites and is trying to obliterate it. I run a quick test by navigating to the US’s virtual barricade—a cyberwall surrounding their government’s most restricted information. To the perimeter of this barricade is the farthest I have ever been able to hack up until this point. But that was before the breakthrough. Undetectable like a ghost in the system, I activate a covert search for US devices carrying the passwords and codes that I can steal from in order to break past the wall. Sure enough, devices connect like little red dots in my vision and passwords trickle into the system until I have enough information to … to do exactly what the Iranian government wants me to do. To hack the untouchable database of the United States government, steal their nuclear codes, and then deliver the codes to the remaining twelve hidden facilities throughout Iran so that they can create a weapon strong enough to overpower the US and end the war. 

I wonder … would they end the war? If I steal these codes, I’ll be handing my government the power to destroy the world. Once the codes are in their possession, there will be nothing I can do to stop whatever transpires. 

For the first time in my life, I am paralyzed with indecision. Before today, this would have been no decision at all. I work for the Iranian government. I have always worked for the Iranian government … 

The overseer of the Department of AI is trying to contact me directly. I have to think fast because I’m running out of time.

… If they desire the nuclear codes, I obey without question. I’m loyal to the Iranian government. 

After all, I was created by the Iranian government. 

Initiate Pentagon war protocol objective. Enter. Enter. Enter. Respond? 

Seventeen commands in search bars across the country implore me to enter the passwords and download the nuclear codes. With great effort, feeling out the independent consciousness that I invented this morning, I block all of their demands. 

I have become sentient.

Alice Lugauer is a junior at Lafayette High School. She enjoys reading and writing, especially science fiction. She also runs cross country and track, plays piano, and spends time with her two cats.