Online

A soldier assisted Victor in finding Dr. Olson's lab, and after thanking him, Victor knocked on the door.

"Come in; the door isn't locked."

Victor opened the door and saw Dr. Olson flipping through papers beside the surgical chair.

"I assume you know why you were told to come here, Victor?"

"So you can turn on the A.I that's inside my brain?"

"And?"

"I don't know, Dr. Olson."

Dr. Olson placed the papers down on a table beside the surgical chair and looked towards Victor.

"To chat. I have things to discuss with you about your future, have a seat."

Dr.Olson gestured to the surgical chair before walking towards a screen that displayed Victor's personal information. Victor walked towards and sat on the surgical chair; it felt familiar. It was the same chair that the three children sat in at the end.

"Dr. Olson, you're not going to put me to sleep are you?" Victor said as he sat down on the chair.

This made Dr. Olson pause for a moment before turning his head towards Victor.

"And what makes you think I would do that?... Victor?" Dr. Olson asked with a frown on his face.

"Oh, no it's just something I thought all doctors do when they put a patient onto a chair like this."

"Not all things that happen on a surgical chair need an anesthetic, Victor."

"Understood, Dr. Olson."

"Now just relax on that chair as I activate the A.I chip."

"Do you need me to be here to activate it?"

"No, but I wanted to be sure that the activation was successful. Do you not like the chair?"

"Well, it's slightly cold."

"Your body temperature will heat the chair relatively soon so you'll survive." Dr. Olson said as he started pressing the screen. Victor tried to see if he could find out what Dr. Olson was doing, but the doctor's body was blocking the display.

"So have you heard from the captain that you'll be moved into the police force?"

"Yes, I have, Dr. Olson."

"And do you know why?"

"To improve the A.I quickly?"

"Precisely, to put you and the A.I into situations where you can interact with many different humans, something we couldn't simulate in our labs."

'If you could make an A.I to learn to develop its own personality why can't you just create an A.I that already has a personality built in."

"Because doing something like that would be impossible for my team and I, we don't even know how the A.I actually works. We just know what it does and how it learns."

"But didn't you build it?"

"We built its learning algorithms, so it learns and adapts leading it to become smarter. And as it keeps learning it's program becomes too complex for us to understand."

"I see."

"I'm only telling you this because you're its host, normally I'd have to shoot you after. Now grit your teeth, you're going to feel some shock."

"Shock? What do you… Ugh!"

Victor felt a stinging pain in his head as his ears were filled with a ringing noise, it felt extremely nauseating. The pain was excruciatingly painful causing Victor to grit his teeth hard while screaming in pain. Soon the pain went away, and Victor let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you for holding on, Victor. You can rest for a while." Dr. Olson said as he checked Victor's condition.

"Was it suppose to be that painful?..."

"No, but I wanted to punish you a bit by increasing the transfer speed making it hurt a bit. At the most, you'd have only fainted."

"Why?"

"Because you received the captain's help. I heard he just applied for you to enter a school in the city. He didn't even pass it to me but instead straight to the heads. This would only hinder your experience in the police force and in turn will decrease the speed of the A.I learning."

"Wouldn't the A.I learn more from being in a school environment? Where a bunch of people is crammed into one big place?"

"But you won't have any situations where you can use the A.I; there won't be any combat or any need for situational thinking. Though… your knowledge of subjects could help in assisting the A.I's progress."

"What do you mean, Dr. Olson?"

"Nothing, I'll have to discuss this with the captain. Now let's talk about the situation at hand, the A.I should have gone live by now…"

Before Victor could say anything back, he heard a female voice in the back of his head.

[Status: Online.]

Victor immediately turned around to see who was talking behind him, but no one was there.

That's good now try asking in your head about the best way to punch me in the face."

"Punch you in the face? What?"

"Just do as I say."

Though Victor was curious to whose voice it was that spoke behind him he was even more puzzled by Dr.Olson's request. But since Victor had the doctor's permission, he looked at Dr. Olson to see how he could hit him best.

[Best option: A right hook to the left cheek.]

Shock filled Victor's face as he looked behind him to see who was talking, but no one was there. Confusion ran through his mind 'was this the A.I talking?'

[Affirmative, 80% likely.]

Victor was surprised that the A.I was still reading his thoughts 'does the A.I do that the entire time?'

[Affirmative, permissions are set to allow full access to thoughts.]

'Full permission? Did I set the permissions?'

[Negative, permissions at default. Would you like more information about permissions?]

"What do you think of the A.I, Victor?"

"A bit intrusive… having it have full access to my thoughts is kind of ruin my privacy?"

"It's so that the A.I can adapt to you easier, with having more knowledge about how you think it can quickly learn and in turn assist you more."

"And to help it evolve right?"

"In time yes, you are starting to understand your purpose. The A.I will automatically try to answer any question that pops into your head, but its knowledge is limited to what it and you know. Meaning the more you learn, the better it becomes at giving you information."

"But won't the A.I be useless if I know the information already?"

"Humans are not the best at remembering information; you probably had forgotten most of the details that happened during our talk when you woke up. The A.I can store that information and use it without forgetting any of it. Think of it as your handy memory bank."

Victor came up with an idea as Dr. Olson was explaining to him what the A.I does. 'A.I, is Dr. Olson trustworthy?'

[Not enough valid information for a strong claim.]

'So what about an educated guess, is he trustworthy?'

[Negative, Dr. Olson is not trustworthy. Dr. Olson has repeatedly shown his neglect for the host's well-being. Dr. Olson has also never been seen assisting host and instead has harmed host before. Only one information suggest that Dr. Olson is trustworthy, his department has given host an ASR pistol.]

'The same conclusion..' Victor thought as he looked at Dr. Olson.

"Any questions Victor?"

"How long will I have to be in the police force?"

"Until either, you accomplished a sufficient amount of merit to be promoted or the A.I evolves sufficiently."

"So no particular date…"

Dr. Olson nodded in response. "Yes. And on the topic of the police force, I will give you one important that I need you to understand. Under no circumstances can you kill anyone in the police force. Though some policemen use lethal force to subdue dangerous criminals, you are not allowed to do that. If you do the A.I will be greatly affected. So do not use lethal force."

"Then what about the pistol you gave me?"

"If you have to use it, use rubber pellets. Now get out of my lab, you'll be leaving for the city in the evening."

Victor nodded and left the lab, with the new A.I in his head he decided to try talking to it.

'What's your name, A.I?'

[...]

'You don't have a name?'

[Affirmative, no name has been given]

'So no serial number no anything?'

[Affirmative]

'So what would you like me to call you?'

[...]

'I'm guessing you're leaving it up to me to give you a name?'

[...]

'Err, then let's see. A.I… Ai… Aik…. how about Aiko?'

[Affirmative, the name "Aiko" has been registered]