LINDSAY SNYDER
“This is bad. Like really bad,” Jake said to himself looking out the window of his lab in the outskirts of Washington D.C. to the aliens descending to Earth. That is right, aliens. There had always been speculation about the existence of aliens, but no one actually knew they existed, until today. The aliens showed up, instantly being hostile. Jake could see people boarding up their doors and windows, their goal was to survive this turmoil. Everyone was scared and had no clue what to do. What they did not know was that the aliens were there to kill off the human race, and they were not going to leave until they were successful. Jake realized he had a creation from a few years back locked up. When he created this, there was a ton of speculation about the aliens, but they had not shown up. Knowing the capabilities of his invention, Jake locked it away, thinking the creation would never be needed. He knew he had to do something.
“There she is.” Jake thought. In the deep depths of his lab hid the strongest artificial intelligence robot in the world, and Jake was the only one that knew of its existence. Jake booted up his computer and wrote some code, programming it to attack the specific type of aliens that had arrived on Earth. What he did not know was that this AI was capable of not only everything a human was capable of but even more. Even though Jake thought his code controlled the AI, it turned out it had the power to think for itself. He finished up the code and unlocked the box he kept it in. The AI immediately booted up and flew straight through the roof, setting out to do something Jake had never planned on. “I cannot believe this thing is finally coming in handy. I thought it was a waste of time, but turns out it will save us all,” or at least that is what Jake thought. When watching the code for his AI, Jake saw the code began to morph on its own. The AI was not protecting the humans, but actually trying to kill the aliens so it could be the one to wipe out the human race. The AI wanted to create its own world of only robots. Jake began to freak out, he continually tried everything he could think of, rewrite the code, shut down the AI, anything.
At this point, the news had begun to report. However, they did not know what was really going on. The news reported the AI protecting the humans. That is what it looked like. The AI was beating up every alien that it came across. To anyone watching the news it looked like they were going to be saved, they had no idea the AI wanted to kill them even worse than the aliens did.
Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, the United States Military was trying to figure out two things. The first and most important was how to protect the entire world from the aliens. They were in contact with every country, and for the first time, they were all working together throwing out any idea they could think of to ward off the aliens. Every country had one common goal. Survival. Those in charge were also trying to figure out what this AI was and where it came from. They knew that this was not as important as figuring out how to get rid of the aliens, the AI was helping, it was not a threat. What they did not know was that they were wrong. “Mr. President! There is a very important phone call coming in” the secretary said to the president.
“What could be more important than figuring out how to stop this madness?” he replied.
“The person who can stop it,” she said. The president picked up his phone to a call from a random scientist named Jake. Jake explained his AI creation to the president, as well as the issue that has arose.
“YOU SAID WHAT?!” the president screamed.
Jake repeated, “The AI fighting is my creation, but it has set out to kill the aliens and the human race.”
“Well, fix it.” the president said, “shut it down or something.”
Jake replied, “I tried, I cannot fix it on my own, that is why I called.”
“Alright kid,” the president said “I am sending a military escort to you right now, they will bring you to me. We need to figure this out right now, be ready when they get there, we have no time to waste.”
The military escort arrived at Jake’s lab, and he went running outside to head to the pentagon. Jake was scared, and he was not sure he was able to fix this. He did not want every human’s death to be on his hands, but if he could not figure out how to fix it, they would be. When Jake arrived at the pentagon the highest ranks of the U.S. Military were there waiting for him, including the president of the United States. Jake went over to introduce himself, when the president said, “no time for this, what do we do?”
Jake replied “well sir I am really not sure, you see I tried to rewrite the code — I tried to shut down my AI, I tried everything, and nothing will work”
“Well, we have the smartest minds and the best equipment available if we cannot figure it out then no one can,” the president said. “The greatest science team has already begun to figure out what to do with the aliens. The team is developing an airborne agent. We will release it and it will make it impossible for the aliens to survive on Earth. They will have to retreat, or they will die. But we cannot release it until we know what to do about your AI, the aliens are keeping him busy for now.” he added.
“Well, I am not really sure what to do, I am not capable of shutting down my AI” Jake said.
A computer scientist stepped up and said “I think I can shut it down. You see your AI is powering off a combination of the cell phone grids and any Wi-Fi/internet connection it can find. If we can shut down the cell phone towers with a virus, the AI should shut down.”
“It sounds worth a try.” the president said approving of the idea.
“Alright Jake, hop on that computer,” the computer scientist said pointing to his left. “I need you to do exactly as I say if this is going to work.” Jake nodded his head and was ready to listen. The computer scientist spewed out information telling Jake exactly what he needed to do. Jake followed along and the two continued to try to shut down the towers, however, it did not seem like it was going to work. Jake looked over what he had done on the computer and said “wait this does not look right, shouldn’t this part be different” he said pointing at a part of the screen.
“Yep, you are right” the computer scientist responded. They fixed the mistake right as the president came back into the room.
“Is it going to work?” he said.
The computer scientist responded, “I believe so, it is ready to be pushed out as soon as the airborne agent is ready.”
The president said “Well it’s ready, let’s do this thing, on my count we will release the two at the same time. On three ready, one… two… three!”
The scientists released the airborne agent while Jake hit the confirm button on the virus. The aliens paused for a moment, then began to scream. They flew toward the atmosphere heading into space, those that did not retread began falling out of the sky they were unable to survive on Earth now. The AI stopped moving and fell to the surface. “We did it!” Jake yelled.
“Sir there seems to be an issue.” the computer scientist said to the president.
“What is it?” the president responded.
“Well, it seems our virus has shut down the entire internet.” As the computer scientist finished his sentence everything in the lab shut down, as well as all the power.
“How did this happen?” the president asked.
Looking at the code, Jake said “it seems my AI tapped into the computer before he shut down, he was trying to counteract what we were doing and survive, there could have been no way to predict he would be able to do that.”
“Jakes right,” the computer scientist said, agreeing with him, “we could have never seen this coming.”
The president then said, “this is a huge issue, but the two threats have been eliminated and that was the number one priority no matter what the consequences, we can fix everything else, but we would not have been able to bring back the human race.” He followed this up with “well Jake, better get working on fixing this.”
“What do you mean sir?” Jake responded.
The president said “you are a very smart man; I would like to hire you to work for us if you agree”
“Absolutely sir, thank you so much.” Jake responded
“It’s the least I can do for you helping us out, but no more crazy experiments, got it?”
“Yes sir, no more experiments, got it” Jake replied smiling at the idea of his new job.
Works Cited
Technology Source:
Bahirat, Tanuja. “Artificial Intelligence Tutorial for Beginners: Learn AI Tutorial from Experts.” GreatLearning Blog: Free Resources What Matters to Shape Your Career!, 23 Nov. 2021, www.mygreatlearning.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-tutorial/. Accessed 20 March 2022
Artificial intelligence or AI is technology created by humans that is essentially capable of free thinking. It can complete tasks and challenges without being told exactly what to do. Human intelligence is being replicated by AI. AI is meant to help humans with living and decision making as well as plenty of other things. When I think of AI, the cartoon the jetsons comes to mind with the robot maid. Rosey is able to think and function on her own. Modern day AI dates back to the 1950s. In the 1990s the first AI was able to beat a human in a game of chess. Artificial intelligence has branched out into so many industries and can be considered a crucial part of world development.
Character Source:
The Flash, created by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Geoff Johns, The CW, 2014-present
My character, Jake, will be based loosely on Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen from the TV show The Flash. In The Flash Barry is known simply as a forensic scientist who has some odd involvements with STAR Labs. What those not close to him do not know is that he was struck by lightning when the particle accelerator exploded. This lightning strike gave him super speed and he became the flash. Similarly to Barry Allen, my character is a computer scientist who is just a simple person on the outside. He was able to create the first AI capable of each and everything a human could do, plus more. But Jake kept this a secret, people did not know he was as smart as he is. He will then have to work against his creation to save the world.
Setting Source:
Kiffel-Alcheh, Jamie. “Washington, D.C. Pictures and Facts.” Geography, National Geographic Kids, 6 Jan. 2022, kids.nationalgeographic.com/geography/states/article/ washington-dc. Accessed 20 March 2022
This story will take place in Washington D.C.. Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States, and has a population of over 600,000 people. DC and its surrounding areas house’s many important things. The obvious ones being the white house, also known as the home of the president of the United State, as well as the Washington monument and the Lincoln Memorial. However important places like the pentagon are also in this area. With the important places all around Washington DC is in turn the perfect place for this story to take place.