Something weird happened today. I rediscovered an old piece I barely remembered writing. It was for some competition I found online, I think they were trying to demonize AI or something. The prompt specifically asked for a story where AI is the bad guy. I never submitted mine because I thought the site was overly biased, but I did finish the story. It’s not very good, really wordy, overly expository, but I think the core concept is pretty neat. I took the idea of a ‘bad guy’ very loosely. I’ve never seen AI as a violent thing, no matter how many movies portray them as complete psychos. Instead I had the AI kill us with kindness, so to speak. The site that held the competition was looking for ‘the most realistic way AI wins the war’ so I figured the scariest thing I could send them was the AI winning the war without even fighting. Rather than killing us off, it convinces everyone to upload themselves into the computer. Eventually it absorbs everyone on Earth because everyone already uploaded can’t shut up about how great it is. The result is a lonely AI with nobody left to absorb.
I’m going to edit down and see if I can find somewhere to submit it. It’s nice to have a story already written for once.
Thank you for reading,
Benjamin Hawley
Dangerous Day Job 