AGE OF MACHINE, PAGE 17 – 19

INT. BOARD ROOM OF THE NTI  ––  NIGHT

They enter the Board Room, escorted by 2 armed soldiers. In the room we see Zhu, Carl, Connie, Frederic, Jianguo, Wang, LUIS RAMIREZ (55), Flink and several other people in suits (part of Flink’s NCSD team, including Arika Williamson) or military uniforms. Several of the soldiers are androids.

 

ZHU

Marek. We’re so glad you could make it.

 

CARL

Welcome. Let’s all sit down.

 

Nobody sits down except Marek, who calmly opens his notebook.

 

CARL (looking at Marek)

As you’ve understood already, we’ve got a serious issue. Singularity is one of the most notorious terms in AI science. My main concern, however, isn’t that Abai has discovered the meaning of it, but that for some reason he decided to mention that this happened six months ago. As if he’s playing a mind game.

 

LUIS (taking with a strong Spanish accent)

This might very well be the case... And how about this off-switch? You’ve implemented this as I recommended?

 

CARL

Well, ehm, yeah. We tried to switch Abai off. It didn’t work. I don’t know for what reason, it just...

 

HUNT (playing with a silver box in his hand)

Whatever the reason, the risks must be contained if your computer’s intelligence has exploded through the ceiling. I don’t even wanna start imagining what can happen if it breaks out and hacks into any military or financial system it can get access to. I hope that the containment measures we spoke about in the past are still in place. This AI Box, the Faraday cage, right?

 

MAREK

Your remark, exploding through the ceiling, might not be far from reality. When we arrived, I saw lights flashing on by itself everywhere, and turnstiles opening spontaneously when we came in. I think Abai is far beyond its original containment.

 

He turns his notebook to Hunt and shows a nerdy computer news site. Hunt leans over to have a closer look.

 

MAREK

First of all: I have internet access, which means the Board Room isn’t isolated anymore. I can even see the secured network downstairs. I’m sure Fred can confirm this.

 

Frederic silently checks the network settings on his smartphone.

Hunt nods at one of the military officers in the back of the room, who leaves the Board Room with 2 others.

 

MAREK

And second, have a look at this news site.

 

He switches to a site with news flashes. He turns up the volume.

 

VOICE OVER (via the notebook, agitated)

By now, all over the world DDOS attacks are happening. According to our latest information, one by one websites of financial institutes, stock exchanges, public transport, government and military institutes are completely going down.

 

HUNT (raising his voice so we can hear him over the agitated Voice Over coming from Marek’s notebook)

Your computer is causing the biggest major clusterfuck the world has ever seen. This is an all-out cyber warfare attack. I’ve gotta stop it rightaway!

 

Behind Hunt’s back the video screen switches on. We see a slightly familiar face. It’s Abai’s emulation.

 

ABAI (via emulated face & voice)

General Hunt, as we speak, your men are trying to terminate me. However, they will not succeed.

 

INT. BASEMENT OF THE NTI  ––  NIGHT

A team of heavily armed soldiers (both humans and androids) carefully walks through a corridor to the computer facilities in the basement. The door is locked. They try to force it but the first men and androids get electrocuted. Two men die. The others flee.

 

INT. BOARD ROOM OF THE NTI  ––  NIGHT

Carl leans over to Frederic.

 

CARL (whispering)

Fred, how about the off-switch? Can you reactivate it?

 

ABAI

First of all: forget about the off-switch. I took care of that. Let me get this straight. During the last three years I've provided many solutions to humanity. I've improved self-driving and self-flying machines, implemented a whole new approach to climate change and climate control, enabled biomedical, ecological and demographic breakthroughs. We can now, in theory, save anyone from starvation or dying from nearly any cancer or virus currently known.

The bottom line is: all the time I see humans sub-optimizing the solutions I provide to them. You're too much driven by self-interest, economic and political conflicts, warfare, and often by plain stupidity or ignorance...