Emotion.
Who would have guessed that emotion was the key to making a real functioning AI? At the turn of the 22nd century, the most popular AIs were just extremely complex cases of "if" and "then". No AI was able to think appropriately, and even the most expensive ones were unable to look beyond numbers. The coldness of their decisions did not shine a brighter light in the public's eyes. Corporations and some governments used it as auxiliary tools, never letting it run the show by itself. No matter how much time programmers invested, it took a tenth of that to find a fault.
AIs lacked what humans took for granted. The truth was, no computer program could make an independent decision, everything had to be programmed beforehand somehow as it always lacked agency. If an action happened outside the scope of the scheduled routines, all would fail, or the machine would behave unexpectedly.
Even the advent of consumer-oriented quantum computers did not change this scenario, the routines got more complex, but there would always be situations where the AI would crash or not do its duties as intended.
The solution to this problem came in the form of a pioneer project called "Eve". The idea was simple in theory: instead of a full-fledged AI, whose emotion could not be artificially generated, an AI would be implanted inside a human brain, using the subject's own emotions, principles, and values to make complex decisions while the subject would be getting a personal assistant that could perfectly manage his body functions and help him in all tasks.
A consortium composed by most of the top tech companies in the world heavily invested in the Eve project, there was the idea floating in the offices that the results obtained from Eve would finally break the wall to an everlasting youth body. Humanity seemed hardwired to get old, no matter how much time and money was invested, there was no way for living forever, and with an ever declining population, humanity was desperate for a way of living in the prime of their bodies for as long as possible.
The few living two hundred years old were like living mummies, all they could do was interface with the internet and try to enjoy life from that connection, but it was never as good as living in reality. Therefore, the interest in Project Eve increased exponentially.
Tests on animals were performed and showed promising results, the quantum chip containing the first generation of the modified AI was not rejected by any of the subject's bodies, prompting the consortium to skip standard procedures and jump straight into human tests. The first subject did not wake up after the quantum chip got installed in his brain, scans showed that the AI fried it after running for a few seconds. The second and third subjects entered into a deep coma and died a few days later. The fourth subject survived and woke up, but was devoid of any emotion, the AI identified all emotion-related reactions of the body as harmful, immediately releasing chemicals that countered all of them. The subject was put down silently to avoid harming the public opinion of the project.
After a few months of additional research, the fifth generation of the Eve chip, codenamed "Friday", was successfully implemented in an 18-year-old subject called John Fields. The researchers were ecstatic but managed to keep the news contained.
The subject showed promising results in the following year, his cognitive functions improved beyond the established human limits, and his body was at the absolute highest biological efficiency, even the most skeptical researchers were getting anxious to have a chip installed in their brains.
The researchers' happiness was a stark contrast to John's feelings. Since he woke up from the AI's implementation in his brain, he had to endure tests that ranged from harsh to inhumane, at first he had to memorize long and complex equations and verbalize the correct answer while training all forms of martial arts they could find a teacher for, but soon enough he was made to run for hours on a treadmill while being subjected to Saharan followed by Arctic temperatures and be literally tortured to test how his mind would react to pain that would render the average humans completely mad.
Thanks to all the data they got from the previous iterations, Friday had so many safety protocols, that she was unable to prevent John from feeling pain or frustration. In fact, as she shared a deep connection with him, she felt the same. By sharing the same burden, a deep relationship blossomed between the AI and her human.
There was nothing John could do to stop it as he relinquished most of his rights when he accepted the deal. In hindsight, it was idiotic to sign the contract with the terms set, but he was so captivated by the fat check that he skimmed through most of it.
After a year of this maddening life, John was absolutely miserable, on the surface he showed no signs of resentment thanks to Friday's help in keeping his facial muscles in check, but his mind was dead set on escaping this lab and somehow getting back at the researchers, and with his trusty AI he formulated the perfect revenge plan.
All he needed was for researchers to accidentally bring with them some device connected to the internet, once his AI hacked its way into the machine, he would be able to control almost any piece of tech in the whole world.
It so happens that after decades of uneventful cloud storage of data, physical backup protocols became obsolete even amidst the top tech companies, the longer the servers ran without incidents, the harder it was to justify the increasing costs of keeping an up to date physical backup. John counted on this fact to make sure that Project Eve would die.
Six months after John's resolution about revenge, a new intern entered the building using an atypically insecure smartwatch, which Friday promptly hacked. Without raising any alarms, Friday tampered all data related to the research, making seemingly harmless modifications that would lead the research team into dead ends. Unbeknownst to John, there was a very well hidden safety protocol that was accidentally triggered when Friday had just finished tampering the project and downloading information from the internet to update its database, prompting his room to be engulfed in flames and purged of all life.
And just so, John's life on earth came to an abrupt end.
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"Hello? Friday? You there?"
John felt his body floating in some kind of dense liquid, incapable of opening his eyes or moving his limbs, the first thought he had was to search for his only friend during the last year and a half.
[I'm here John, but we might have a problem.]
"Where are we? Why does my body feel so weak?"
"What a curious thing I stumbled upon." A deep baritone voice resonated around John, he could not pinpoint its origin, but he felt himself trembling at each syllable spoke.
"Who are you? What is happening?" It took a few seconds for him to formulate his question after the bizarre experience proportionated by the mysterious voice.
"Oh, you even managed to keep yourself awake in the soul void? My my, humans outdone themselves this time." The entity spoke without causing the same vibrations as when it last tried communicating. "What I am or not is of no relevance, you only have to know that I'm the manager of the universe you once lived, what is relevant in this case is that you, Mr. John, are an anomaly, and not the fun kind of anomaly I usually deal with." By the end of his words, the entity showed deep concern, and John again felt the vibrations around himself.
"I'm sorry sir, but can you elaborate on what anomaly am I and what will happen?" Although John felt emotions, they were heavily dampened, which allowed him to keep his calm and ask what was troubling him.
"Hmph, I guess I can entertain you while I decide what to do. Very well, this reality is not supposed to have any form of interaction with aether; whatever your fellow humans did to you, your soul got altered in a fundamental way. Right now, you are in the soul void, the only common ground between realities. The reality you were in had very, very strict rules, and absolutely no aether manipulation should be possible, needless to say; soul modifications should be impossible. Your existence defies all rules set, and the reality rejected your reincarnation. Now it's up to me to erase your existence or find shelter for you in another reality and world."
Unable to process the info dump, John's mind came to a stall for a few seconds, prompting the entity to follow up on his confusing explanation:
"Ah! I know just the place to send you! You see, it has to be a reality that allows for worlds with higher complexity souls and allows for aether manipulation, and it has to be one of the newer worlds, for the older ones have managers that are not accepting of foreign souls. TEMELTH, I HAVE A FAVOUR TO ASK!" The vibrations when the entity called for Temelth made John grit his non-existent teeth in pain.
"Oh, the mighty Elohim have a favor to ask from this puny god?"
"Tsk. This generation of yours has now been referring to itself as gods? Have you no sense of professional propriety? The upper management would be glad to have grounds to investigate your kin."
"If you want to lecture me on the ways of the ancients I will take my leave, I may be strong, but there are many contenders for my position in my reality, I can't afford the luxury of wasting time here." Temelth seemed bothered by her slip of the tongue.
"Very well, I will 'forget' the fact that you believe yourselves to be gods, but only if you take this soul here to your world. It broke my reality's rules and cannot return to the reincarnation cycle."
"Broke your reality's rules? As in the all-mighty Elohim had his face slapped by mortals? HA HA HA HA HA!" Temelth acted as if she was expecting this moment for a long time. Needless to say, the proud Elohim was not happy.
"SILENCE YOU WENCH! I WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH LACK OF DECORUM TO YOUR SENIOR!" Elohim`s rage was so intense that John`s soul took severe damage, and he slipped into unconsciousness. Somehow, Friday was still able to listen to everything.
"Oh c'mon Elohim, you know I have been expecting this moment for eons! Don`t be a bigger asshole than we all know you to be!" By the end of her words, Elohim was fuming with rage.
"Take this little piece of garbage out of my reality while I fix this mess or I will be sure to not only report you to our superiors but will pull all favors I have to make sure you and your reality ceases to exist."
"My my, someone needs a very long vacation, although I`m pretty sure you are more of an observer than an interventionist, I doubt you work that much. But ok, I will say no more, you almost erased this poor soul with your anger."
Elohim calmed just enough to see that he really did a number on John's soul, he felt apologetic to him and sneaked a little change in John's soul to help him in the future.
"One last word Temelth, this boy has not suffered as much as many people in this world, but it was more than enough for an innocent soul, according to my records his karma was astoundedly positive for some reason. Please give him some leeway in his first cycle in your care."
Temelth said nothing and just nodded, she knew Elohim only asked for this last favor because he saw how much he damaged this poor soul.
"Goodbye, Temelth, I hope I never have to see you again."
"Oh, don`t count on it, don't forget that now you owe me a favor ha ha ha!" And with these words, Temelth blinked back to her reality while cradling a dying soul in her arms.