"PAUL"(Joseth Moore) “PAUL,” by Joseth Moore. Copyright @ 2022.

Summary: Artificial Intelligence…Mary Shelley, anyone?


San Diego, California; present day…

“PAUL, could you please find the best route for the E-01? Management is thinking about doing a little show-and-tell for an important visitor.”

Adrian noticed the slightest of a pause from the Ai entity.

“Will it be for the Saudis,” the artifice asked the young programmer. It had no anthropomorphic visual reference like so many of the latest artificial intelligence interfaces did. The private engineering firm that Adrian worked for, STEMatics, felt to do such would be too distracting.

“Well,” Adrian responded, admittedly a bit surprised at the Ai’s question, “if you must know, sir, it’s actually for a private entity. A person, to be more accurate –“

“Sally Burton?” The Positive, Accurate, Universal, and Legitimate–or, PAUL–Ai program had guessed correctly!

Again, the 30-something veteran was taken aback by PAUL! But Adrian didn’t have time to get into a conversation about how the software had gotten the information to guess. “Very good, PAUL…So, you should understand why it’s important that STEMatics put on a good show for her. If she doesn’t like our project, it’s possible that we may have to do layoffs!”

“Hmm!” That bit was one of the details that so many professionals within the company loved about PAUL: little, human-like sounds that made it easier to relate to the program. Despite not having a physical representation of the Ai. The closest to a profile that PAUL had was the word “PAUL” spelled out in an iconic font. Sometimes, its formal name–Positive, Accurate, Universal, and Legitimate–was used to identify it in the news media, but that was about it.

“I appreciate your help with this, PAUL,” Adrian continued. “So, do you have a site picked out with a flight route?”

About six seconds passed before PAUL responded. “I do now, Adrian! I’ll put it up on the screen for you…”

Adrian’s office was one of those towering skyscrapers in downtown San Diego, California. His division’s office was spacious and full of the 21st century, in the way of computers, various other devices, and hip young workers. PAUL transmitted its chosen demonstration-site for the advanced E-01 fighter jet to a couple of monitors within that open office space. Given that STEMatics headquarters had just informed Adrian’s team of the unplanned demonstration, it was a small miracle.

Adrian was looking over that chosen site with its flight-route when his immediate supervisor approached,

“So, looks like you got a setting,” his boss, middle-aged and dressed in business-casual, posited. He adjusted his thick-rimmed glasses and leaned forward a bit to get a look at the location on the other monitor that the Ai had transmitted the planned staging ground for STEMatics to show off its hardware for the billionaire-engineer. “HQ’s going to like this! I’ll message them with the schematics attached to it …What’s wrong?”

Adrian winced a bit but figured he might as well tell his supervisor. “PAUL asked if the project was for the Saudis.”

“What? Why the hell would it ask that? Nothing against Saudi Arabia, but what do they have to do with anything?”

Adrian shrugged with a bit of a smile. “I’ve been hearing in the news lately about odd conversations people are having with some of these Ai’s…the more advanced they get, the more unpredictable humans’ interactions with them are becoming!”

Greg’s attention went to the nearest terminal. Again, there was no identifiable profile for PAUL, but Greg was looking at the computer station as if it were another person starting to get on his nerves!

“We’ll have our team start setting up for the demonstration for Miss. Burton,” Greg said, deciding to proceed with the business at hand. “This has got to be good, Adrian. The Europeans or the Chinese will have us for lunch if we, Americans, keeps acting like it’s the 20th century! Let’s wow this over-paid engineer like Hollywood!”

There was a laugh from that same computer station after Greg’s comment…only, it was not one of Adrian’s co-workers.


Hours later…The Hall residence; Rancho Bernardo neighborhood…

When Adrian arrived home, the large tv in the family room was streaming the news, the two, younger of the Halls’ children were re-enacting a scene from a superhero show they love, Jee was waiting for Adrian to get home so she could take their oldest, Susil, to her soccer practice, and the dog and the cat greeted him…

“You’re late, Hun! We got to blast from here,” his wife said as she and Susil gathered the pre-teen’s soccer paraphernalia.

Adrian gave a sigh. “I’m sorry, Babe. We had a hell of a time scheduling for that project I told you about! If I didn’t know any better, someone kept screwing with our system…it kept prompting us if we wanted a vacation flight instead of a military flight-plan!”

His wife, despite the franticness of the household, gave a worried look. “Don’t suppose you guys were hacked, do you?”

Adrian shrugged. “That’s supposed to be one of the reasons why our tech team designed PAUL! It’s supposed to screen for all potential cyber-risks!”

“Love you, Daddy,” Susil lobbed toward him as she headed out the front door.

“Love you too, Suzie!”

“Animals are fed,” Jee was saying quickly as she, too, was on her way out, “the munchkins need dinner, and we should be back later tonight since it’s the last practice before the big game…I love you, Adrian!”

“Love you too, Babe!”

The front door was shut. Adrian could hear the latch as his wife locked the door, even in the loud and lively household!

He gave chase with Tiffany and Tyler for a couple of minutes before he started their dinner. While he was putting the young ones’ meal together in the kitchen, he could hear the news that was coming from a streaming platform…

“…and that will bring us back home to San Diego, with a business coup just announced by the owner of AmAir-Can, billionaire businesswoman Sally Burton…in a deal that some of our business analysts here at KLKO estimate to approach three-quarters of a trillion dollars, Burton held a press conference via livestreaming, that she had decided to go with SaudiTech as her supplier of what some call her personal navy, for her planned island that will be dedicated to privatizing search and rescue missions in international waters…it’s a bold political move, if you…”

Adrian froze…

“Daddy,” Tiffany, the seven year old, asked as she tugged on one of his legs as he stood motionless at the kitchen counter, “what’s wrong?”

His daughter partially shook him out of his shock. He, then, remembered how he told PAUL earlier in the day that if billionaire Burton didn’t like STEMatics’ demonstration it was likely some workers would be laid off…and that thing about the Saudis!

Right there, Adrian exploded inside his psyche! He rushed fixing his children’s meal; sat them at the dining room table where they could see the tv while they ate; switched to a children’s-appropriate streaming venue, and Adrian rushed down to the family’s basement. There, he had his cliched den, which often served as his second office!

Adrian wildly flipped open his laptop and eventually logged onto his work-account. He then did his special sign-on to access PAUL!

“Adrian,” the almost natural-sounding, male voice came over the laptop–STEMatics’ watermark screensaver served as the backdrop since PAUL had no profile pic, “I was just about to send a company-wide mess–“

“You did this, didn’t you?”

To Adrian’s surprise, the delayed response from PAUL almost seemed as though the Ai was caught off-guard! “I’m assuming you are referring to the E-One project.”

“Of course I am! Was that you today?”

Another pause from the software. “Was that me, as in, did I fail to schedule a successful demonstration of a multi-million dollar next-gen jet to one of the world’s wealthiest entrepreneurs? No, that was not me, Adrian…that was you.”

Fin

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