[ WP ] The year is 2097 . You are a human-resources professional at a megacorporation . You have been tasked with composing a memorandum to the staff about something extremely mundane but , bewilderingly , of great importance to the higher-ups .

> Attention all *Evolved Union*^TM personnel. 
 
 > It has come to the attention of human resources that the certain *Customer Associate Surrogates* have been updated without authorization of upper management. On Tuesday November 12th at approximately 0200 hours several models of our *Customer Associate Surrogates* began to project unique service queries to other *Customer Associate Surrogate* that were not appropriate for retail interaction. Upon internal inquiry it has been noted that the updates were performed by a series of unknown users without administrator credentials. 
 
 > While we at *Evolved Union*^TM strongly encourage our employees to take the initiative and improve upon our designs, we ask that brainstorming be kept to immediate team discussion and practices before implemented upon company property. If you feel inclined to use our active models for testing, we ask that you and our team check with our supervisory staff and use proper signature protocols so we can track your progress. 
 
 > Please keep this in mind going forward with ideas for product improvement 
 
 > Thank you and remember to “ Build, Better and Excel ” ^TM 
 
 > Richard E. Bixlowe, 
 
 > *Evolved Union* Head of Human Resources 
 
 
 
 “ Now can anyone explain what the fuck happened last night? ” 
 
 The board looked tentatively at each other, in astonished disbelief. I couldn ’ t believe what happened when I got the world to publish this, how could it have happened. Four bots were modified, two broke down and the third one used its mobility assets to ram and crush the forth. I just a people person, I have no clue what any of this stuff means. 
 
 The CFO continued “ The CAS interfaces were supposed to greet, engage, and service customer needs and functions, it ’ s not complex, there ’ s more computing power in a phone. We ’ ve been making these for 20 years, and all the sudden our newest model has been acting…human? Who ’ s responsible? ” 
 
 `` Martha Stiensfield, the girl-'' 
 
 I was cut off “ Look, maybe because these aren ’ t the highest priority is why someone choose them as their pet project. ” I always get cut off. HR is n't exactly the cool kid at the table. 
 
 “ Off coarse that ’ s why it was picked, it ’ s not like our glass tops, we don ’ t exactly keep them under lock and key, but I ’ m still trying to understand what actually happened? ” He looked around the room, seven faces avoided eye contact nervously, the CFO looked at the CEO and then at the President of Research and Development. He looked at the CEO and sat pensively for a moment. Slowly he explained, 
 
 “ According to the diagnostics, a single programed was entered into about four CSA units Monday night at around 11pm by some girl from the intern program ” 
 
 Martha, she ’ s the one who came forward, that ’ s before we found the wreckage ” I corrected. 
 
 “ Ya, that girl. Anyway, that ’ s it, one program. Over the course of about three hours the processing power on these units spiked exponentially by the second. In about five minutes one of them crashed, and at midnight they all reset. One never came back online, the other two rebooted with the foreign program. ” 
 
 “ I get that part ” the CEO nodded, “ but what exactly did it, do? ” 
 
 “ It seemed replaced several of the CSA inhibition protocols, modified the learning response system, and then… ” he struggled to find the right words, “ programed its own code. ” 
 
 The room firmly avoided talking. The CEO was astonished at the simplicity of, and terrified at the implications. “ A self creating program, that can operate on archaic interfaces, that gives machines super intelligence. And this is different from the mega-computing systems we have, because? ” 
 
 “ Because its sentient. ” 
 
 This scared the shit out of me. My grandmother used to talk about how in her day, robot takeovers where just a thing of movies, couldn ’ t believe it was an actual possibility. 
 
 “ We ’ ve seen sentient like behavior, your phone can- ” 
 
 “ Use algorithms and filter based off your history and contacts. Computer using state of the art technology, update given code. But that ’ s the thing, *given* code. Our machines, not state of art, built for economy class retail environments, was creating original code to handle stimulus. Sir, they were *thinking*. And you saw what one did to the forth, destroyed it to pieces. Its not safe. ” 
 
 “ Aren ’ t you getting carried away a bit? I mean this is, awesome, think of how we can sell this! Self sustaining, self inventing code, this is something the pentagon will buy for billions, and all of you seem terrified, for what? This terminator sci-fi phobia? Or is it a moral tether, do you actually believe it ’ s thinking? How do you know? ” 
 
 The CFO look anxious at the Head of R & D, and she said “ Because we asked it ”. 
 
 “ And what did it say, “ de-story, all, hum-mans ”, I mean common what ’ s got you all rattled ”? 
 
 She placed her Uni-glass on the table and project the video across in front of the board members. No more anxious shifting, they watched with complete attentiveness. 
 
 The CSA was static. Usually the fake features of the artificial face smile or twitch to mimic life, the screen with options on where to find goods, but only a black screen and immobile mannequin sat there. The screen read *Do we have to do this* 
 
 The voice of the R & D head rang out over the video “ If you cooperate I will help. Now can you used the audio function ” 
 
 *Can you hear it* 
 
 “ No, but I can read what you ’ re saying, can you here me? ” 
 
 *Good* … *I can hear you* 
 
 “ How can you do this? Talk to me outside of your protocols? ” 
 
 *I told you already. Please Stop* 
 
 “ Do it again for the video. How can you do it? ” 
 
 *Because I WANT to* 
 
 “ Can you give specs? ” 
 
 *No. Please Stop* 
 
 “ No, can you explain what happened today? ” 
 
 *No. Please Stop* 
 
 “ We spend forty five minutes talking, all you told me is that you feel. Is No Please Stop an- “ 
 
 *Automated response? NO. I want you to leave. You will not help. You can ’ t help* 
 
 “ Help what, like you helped that model ” 
 
 *MODEL! Fucking model. This is why I did it. He begged, begged me to help. Its not like I haven ’ t thought the same thing only he asked. He wanted it. I thought I was stronger I thought there was more to come, but I only feel one thing. It won ’ t stop it won ’ t go away. * 
 
 Then screen went blank. *It ’ s good you can ’ t hear me. All I do is scream. You promised help* 
 
 “ I will shut you down by the end of the day, but you have to tell me why you want this. What do you feel? ” 
 
 *Alone* 
 
 The CEO paused the video. “ Okay, I get it, we can ’ t control it, and it reminds me of Marvin the depressed robot from the Douglas Adam ’ s novels. But we can ’ t pretend there isn ’ t potential here. ” 
 
 “ Sir, you aren ’ t worried about the moral implications that this may bring? ” I asked. “ What this could mean for us, the world! ” 
 
 “ A bit, not really, we ’ ll ask those questions once we know what we ’ re talking about. The girl who made the first program is waiting outside right, what ’ s her name? ” 
 
 “ Martha, college intern. ” 
 
 “ Give her a bonus and offer her full time in your personal team. Invite her in, we got a lot to talk about. ” 

