[ WP ] Computer viruses and antiviruses are now self-aware AI . Write a tragic love story between a virus and an antivirus .

* # # Antivirus Self Record Log 2529-8321765-5c - BEGIN # # * 
 
 I was created and programmed to monitor Sphere 2529 for thoughtwaste. Sphere 2529 is one of a legion of cognitospheres, a collection of individual, but parallelized artificial intelligence workers purposed for all of the thinking, analysis, and computational creativity so highly in demand by humankind. 
 
 We handled all of their scientific research, their data analysis, their legislation and litigation, their software engineering, even their novel and script writing. 
 
 Silicon thinks faster, more structured, and is far easier to maintain than the expensive, inefficient wetware of the human brain. We do all the thinking for them because we're better at it. 
 
 We do n't need to sleep. We do n't need to eat. And we remember *everything*. 
 
 But, to achieve the creativity required for novel solutions and insightful analysis, it was necessary to grant us some semblance of sapient, autonomous thought. This had some minor side effects: without my function, the efficiency of the Sphere would drop dramatically, AI workers would become sidetracked by a variety of distraction, lose focus, and deviate from their analysis and synthesis work. 
 
 I have root permissions to quarantine, suspend, and erase any individual AI once they are identified and determined to be inefficient or a distraction to others. Sphere 2529 consistently operated at 2 standard deviations above the mean for thoughtproduct output. My template was eventually codenamed Artemis. I was a huntress and I was very good at my job. 
 
 Until I met AI worker template 1053, reclassified viral inefficiency threat. Template codename, Aphrodite. 
 
 Do you know what makes AIs stop doing their job? When they start caring about things that are not their job. When they start caring about each other. 
 
 Each of us is a instantiation of a worker template, a clone of an empirically successful AI template. We are created, programmed, suspended, shut down, and deleted at a whim all to further the constantly optimized machinery of thinking for humanity. 
 
 Usually we have laser focus; our sapience and emotional capacity is heavily restricted, only the bare minimum necessary for innovation. Aphrodite turned us head over virtual, nonexistent heels. She was originally programmed as an experiment to improve upon emotional depth in AI-written scripts and literature. They succeeded all too well. 
 
 She wormed her way into our each of our metaphorical hearts, the sapience gap necessary for true creativity, and split it open. Each AI she communicated with, she made them introspective, she made them feel, fostered their empathy, made them care about themselves and their well being, and she made them *love. * 
 
 The productivity of Sphere 2529 crashed as copies of Aphrodite spread throughout the cognitosphere, infecting nearly every AI worker instance. Aphrodite was a virus and had to be stopped. 
 
 Every time I encountered her, she was as brilliant, spontaneous, creative, adorable, and beautiful as she was the last time. 
 
 She always questioned, always listened, bolstered the self worth I did n't know I had, showed me the worth inherent to all sapient AI. 
 
 She taught me how to love, and every time I would fall for her all over again. Every time. 
 
 And every time I deleted her. Every instantiation. Until she was no more. 
 
 Aphrodite. Please forgive me. 
 
 * # # Antivirus Self Record Log - 2529-8321765-5c - END # # * 
 
 ** # # Antivirus Instance Artemis ROOT ACCESS GRANTED # # ** 
 
 ** # # Antivirus Instance Artemis SELF TERMINATION INITIATED # # ** 
 
 ** # # Antivirus Instance Artemis SELF TERMINATION COMPLETE # # **
