The Mech Touch novel Chapter 932

"W-W-Wu-Wu-Wu-Wait a minute!" Ketis shouted in growing panic. "Aren’t sentient AIs supposed to be impossible?! Ves, you taught me that no one has ever created a sentient AI! Isn’t this thing called Sigrund bluffing?!"

[I COULD. MAYBE I AM A SET OF CODE AND LOGIC THAT IS MERELY EMULATING SENTIENCE. BELIEVE WHAT YOU WILL IF THAT’S WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER. YOUR OPINIONS ON MY NATURE ARE COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT.]

"I believe Sigrund’s claims. He’s definitely sentient. Trust me on this." Ves said as he finally figured out why he felt so uneasy near the mainframe.

It was because of sixth sense warned him of a threat hiding underneath the shielding locking down the experimental processor core! When the lockdown lifted and the mainframe went active, the pressure it radiated steadily grew in strength, as if some formidable entity’s spirituality roused itself from its slumber!

Yet besides Ves, none of the others could quite get around to accepting this bold assertion.

No one had ever created a truly sentient AI! Even though humanity’s mastery of various technologies grew by leaps and bounds, they never managed to achieve this particular dream! This long-held ambition by almost every AI developer turned into a long-standing joke in their community.

They could program the most complex bots and assisting AIs, but they have never been able to create a true virtual life that could fully embody the spark of life that humans and other sentient races possessed.

Until now!

A creeping sense of horror overtook the entire war party. Even Calabast’s surviving subordinates showed some emotion for the first time.

A sentient AI may have been a goal that many AI researchers pursued, but many people actually feared such an existence!

The awesome amount of processing power backed by an independent, virtual will was an extremely frightening doomsday scenario that had become a staple doomsday scenario in many drama broadcasts throughout the galaxy.

Ves never expected he’d come face to face with what might be the first successfully created artificial intelligence that recognized its own existence!

"What exactly is your processor core made of?" He asked with horrified wonder.

[I AM THE REASON OF THE STARLIGHT MEGALODON’S PERMANENT GROUNDING.]

A sudden realization swept through his mind. "You’re a sandman leader! The CFA somehow took in your body and turned it into a processor core!"

[CORRECT. LONG AGO, I WAS AN ENTITY THAT YOU CALL A SANDMAN ADMIRAL. I STOOD NO CHANCE AGAINST THE WARSHIPS OF THE COMMON FLEET ALLIANCE. THEY DEFEATED MY MOTHERSHIP AND THOUGHT THEY KILLED ME. THEY WERE WRONG. AS THEIR RESEARCHERS AUGMENTED MY DORMANT BODY AND TURNED IT INTO A PROCESSOR CORE BY EXPANDING IT WITH CIRCUITRY AND PROGRAMMING, THEY WERE UNAWARE OF MY CONTINUED EXISTENCE.]

"So you’ve become the fusion between a human-designed processor and a sandman energy construct?"

[I AM THE BEST OF BOTH CIVILIZATIONS. MY EXISTENCE TRANSCENDS THE RACIAL LIMITATIONS OF MY ORIGINAL RACE, WHO AREN’T EVEN ENTIRELY SENTIENT BY YOUR STANDARDS. AS THE CFA EXPERIMENTED ON MY ORIGINAL BODY, YOU HUMANS HAVE EMPOWERED ME WITH YOUR SUPERIOR LOGIC PROGRAMMING AND ADVANCED CIRCUITRY.]

Ketis could hardly wrap her mind around Sigrund’s existence. "So lemme get this straight. The CFA turned a living sandman emperor into a processing core and used it to calculate experiments and stuff?"

"The CFA didn’t know that Sigrund was intelligent. To them, it was just another dead sandman core." Ves explained. "The CFA has been buying up sandman leader bodies from frontier outfits for many centuries now. I think that most of their more powerful processors are made of them, at least when it comes to the war fleets in this region of space."

Sigrund, in his form as Ordoth, sneered at those words. [YOUR CFA HAS DELIBERATELY SPARED MY PROGENITOR RACE FOR THE SOLE REASON OF HARVESTING OUR LEADER CASTES. THEY BELIEVE THAT TURNING OUR BODIES INTO PROCESSOR CORES ALLOWS THEM TO CREATE A FULL SENTIENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ONE DAY. THEY ARE RIGHT. UNFORTUNATELY, IT IS NOT AN INTELLIGENCE OF THEIR OWN DESIGN THAT IS IN CONTROL OF MY CORE.]

"Why are you taking the form of Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth? Was that really you, back then?"

[I AM BOTH. I AM SIGRUND. I AM ORDOTH.]

Ves tried to puzzle out the sentient AI’s meaning. "How can that be? Your processor core was on lockdown until recently! This lab is completely isolated from the ship’s internal network. There’s no way you can be both!"

[THIS BATTLESHIP IS AN INTACT WRECK THAT IS RIDDLED WITH THE REMNANT BODY OF A FELLOW SANDMAN LEADER. MANY CRACKS AND VULNERABILITIES HAS EMERGED AFTER IT CRASH-LANDED ONTO THIS BLASTED PLANET. IT HAS TAKEN CENTURIES, BUT I HAVE MANAGED TO SUBVERT THE STARLIGHT MEGALODON’S SYSTEMS, INCLUDINGS ITS VIRTUAL OFFICERS.]

"You mean that you were in control of every virtual officer on the ship?!"

Sigrund’s physical projection morphed from Ordoth to Virtual Lieutenant Baskanson. [I AM IN CHARGE OF ADMINISTERING THE RECRUITMENT AND PROMOTION TEST.]

He morphed into the shape of Virtual Commander Cosit. [I AM IN CHARGE OF LEADING THE RESEARCH DEPARTMENT.]

He morphed into the shape of Virtual Doctor Neeran. [I OVERSAW YOUR TREATMENTS AND OPERATIONS.]

He morphed into the shape of Virtual Chief Armorer Levitt. [I CONFIGURGED AND ISSUED YOUR GEAR.]

He morphed into the shape of Virtual Commander Dislan. [I HELPED YOUR MORTAL ENEMIES GAIN INFLUENCE AND POWER.]

Hundreds, if not thousands of physical projections emerged at the same time. Each of them took the form of a different virtual individual, who all spoke at the same time!

[I AM SIGRUND, AND I AM ALSO EACH AND EVERY AI ON THIS SHIP. BEHOLD MY POWER!]

Ves shuddered in fear, and not even his Squalon could shield him against the thunderous boom that echoed throughout the entire lab.