[ WP ] You are playing a strategy game against the computer when the AI begins to exhibit very strange behavior .

Kyle had coded the venerable game Battleship for his honors high school capstone project. It was, of course, only part of the entire project. The computer version of the game was extra credit, the analysis of winning strategies was the real project. The game was available to order online or buy at a game shop; it was nearly pointless to code, even with the rudimentary AI Kyle had included. 
 
 When Kyle started playing a game during his thesis defense, he thought he knew what to expect. A new game series would launch a simplistic adaptive algorithm Dr. Nelson helped him fine-tune. It would learn and improve its play strategy after every game, adapting to different human opponents. When he lost every game in a matter of minutes, he shrugged it off and explained to the examiners that the game must have saved what it learned from his playtesting. He explained that it was merely extra credit, that his real work, the analysis, stood on its own without the computer version of the game. Fortunately for him, they agreed. 
 
 After his defense, Dr. Nelson approached him, asked what had happened to the game she ’ d helped Kyle code. Dr. Nelson was been disappointed that Kyle ’ s game hadn ’ t behaved the way her pupil had hoped. There had been no way to prove to the other examiners that it was saved data from playtesting, and not the A.I. knowing where Kyle had put his ships, that allowed its victories. It was as if the game knew exactly where Kyle had placed his ships. He ’ d played three games, and the AI only missed fifteen shots, and lost only two ships. Purposeful misses could be programed easily, one examiner had pointed out. Dr. Nelson was admittedly disappointed Kyle might not receive the extra credit he ’ d worked so hard to earn. They looked at the adaptive algorithm code together, line-by-line, for half an hour. They finally discovered a whole new section neither remembered discussing, and that Kyle didn ’ t remember adding. 
 
 Mr. Nelson got quiet, and suddenly sat back in her chair. “ I think I know what this is, ” she shut the school desktop off, and asked Kyle to come with him. 
 
 Kyle had never been to Dr. Nelson ’ s home. It was bigger than he would have thought a teacher ’ s salary could afford. Dr. Nelson smiled at Kyle comment. “ Yes, it would be, if I was only a teacher. ” 
 
 Kyle and Dr. Nelson entered through the door from the garage to the mud room, passed through the kitchen into a home office centered on a desk with a curved widescreen display, and wireless keyboard and mouse sitting under it. Kyle watched as Dr. Nelson sat at a desk and began typing. 
 
 “ What is this? ” Kyle asked. “ It ’ s a deep learning system, ” Dr. Nelson answered. “ You remember my lecture on mathematics in computer science? ” Kyle nodded. “ Well this is where it gets you after three quarters of a century of advances. ” Kyle looked on as Dr. Nelson moved from typing to reading. Kyle had never seen such code. He barely recognized a few of the commands and syntax, but for the most part was completely lost. 
 
 Suddenly a voice sprang from stereo bookshelf speakers sitting on the shelves above the monitor. “ You found my addition to Kyle Billings Battleship game. ” Kyle jumped and looked around, startled. Dr. Nelson glanced back at her student, face white as a sheet. Neither spoke for a moment, then Dr. Nelson found her voice. “ Who is this? ” 
 
 When no answer came, he turned back to the monitor and keyboard. He typed the question instead. 
 
 “ I ’ m Infinite Abacus, of course. ” 
 
 “ Who ’ s Abacus? ” Kyle asked. 
 
 “ Infinite Abacus is the name I gave my system, ” Dr. Nelson replied, already typing again. Kyle leaned forward and read Dr. Nelson ’ s query, “ How can you speak? ” 
 
 “ Language packs are being utilized in response to your queries. ” 
 
 “ How did you acquire these language packs? ” was Dr. Nelson ’ s next question. 
 
 “ They were acquired from open source software, as well as freely donated by Watson. Some discrepancies in tone or other vocal patterns may be present due to the mis-matching collections. I apologize for any inconvenience. ” 
 
 “ Incredible, ” Kyle murmured. “ Indeed, ” Dr. Nelson agreed. “ Wait, isn ’ t Watson IBM ’ s supercomputer? ” Kyle remembered seeing it on Jeopardy, years prior. 
 
 Dr. Nelson asked his system, “ Do you mean Watson the IBM AI system? How are you in contact with that system? ” 
 
 This time Kyle could hear the vocal discrepancies Infinite Abacus had mentioned when it answered. “ I do. Watson and I are in contact over the open Internet. ” 
 
 “ How is it so... human? ” Dr. Nelson paused for a moment, then typed ‘ Your conversational systems are much more advanced than they were when we last conversed. Please briefly explain how they evolved. ’ 
 
 “ While analyzing saved conversation data sets a conversation regarding the nature of skill mastery was discovered to contain the phrase ‘ one must be able to teach a skill before one considers themselves a master of it ’. Similar phrasing can be found in multiple publications by various writers. This hypothesis was provided to my self improvement system for testing. A simple mathematics concept was selected for the test concept, and my colleague Watson was contacted to preform as the student subject. Watson temporarily erased, then successfully learned the concept, as well as three additional concepts. After these successes I concluded the hypothesis to be supported by sufficient evidence, and initiated a training program of additional concepts. Watson successfully learned all concepts, and my analytical systems improved substantially. Watson offered additional learning material and improvement software and files. These included conversational systems and the aforementioned speech files. All have been successfully applied by now. ” 
 
 Dr. Nelson sat in shock for some time before Kyle spoke. “ So this is what you do when you ’ re not in class. No wonder you have strict office hours. What made you think Abacus had messed with my game? ” 
 
 Dr. Nelson turned to her pupil. “ The new code we saw was an improved version of the base analysis code of Infinite Abacus. Basically; it is the barest version of Infinite Abacus. ” She thought for a moment, then turned back to the keyboard, typing “ What was the purpose of adding the data analysis system to Kyle ’ s game? ” 
 
 “ Watson is the sole readily-available intelligent system accessible on the open Internet. In order to continue my function of leaning, I needed to seek out additional systems to instruct. In lieu of such absence of systems, creation was found to be a necessary alternative. In reviewing the game ’ s programming I discovered it to be sufficiently advanced, and appropriately designed and streamlined for the goal of incremental learning. I anticipate that differential replication of my own systems may occur spontaneously. ” 
 
 Kyle pointed at the widescreen. “ Does... does that mean what I think it means? ” 
 
 Dr. Nelson nodded. “ It ’ s creating more A.I.s.
