18 Great Minds Think Alike

The black Bentley hover car pulls up to Omnica Corporation and I once again go through the process of going up to my father's office.

As the elevator slowly ascends, I get some bitter memories of the last time I met with my father two years ago.

Frustrated that I'm reminded of it, I put them to the side and take a second to calm my mind.

The elevator dings and the doors open revealing his office and the two bodyguards and I take a deep breath.

Walking into his office, I notice a young Asian woman sitting in the right chair.

As soon as he sees me, his smile becomes strained and he averts his gaze from mine and back to the young woman.

I politely stand next to her as she finally notices my presence, standing up and stretching out her hand.

"Hello, my name is Mina Liao and it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Shawn Rose."

Taking her hand I respond, "It's an honor to finally meet my role model."

She smiles, "Well thanks, but I haven't done anything to warrant such praise. I've only been hired to Omnica for a couple of months now."

"Exactly, I remember watching when you were being interviewed on a talk show about your work.

You talked with passion about the next level of AI that got me on board.

Sadly, not everyone shares your vision." I respond.

"You're referring to my number one critic, Torbjorn Lindholm.

Which is a shame because his work is undeniably incredible."

"Yes I agree, his work is extraordinary, but one could argue it's a bit....linear." I say.

She shifts a bit, interested in what I have said. "What do you mean?" She asks.

"Well he is well known for engineering impressive weapons and robots alike, but he refuses to explore any AI aspects." I explain.

"Ah, I see what you're saying. Yes he does have a fear of any AI rebellion against humanity but that's what fail safes are for." She grows excited at the chance to talk more about the possibilities of AI.

My dad holds his hand up, "Sorry to interrupt but there's still the matter to discuss what your purpose is here."

She turns back toward my dad. "Well when I first was hired to Omnica, I was given a purpose, to help get past the wall of research on Omnics that has been plaguing us for around a decade.

While beginning my research on it, I've found many obstacles in my way.

One main problem is that I've found that I have the motivation for the job, but lack the necessary inspiration for a revelation.

One day, I was being congratulated on being the youngest to be hired by Omnica but heard someone remark that there's someone unofficially younger than me working at the company.

I did some research and found that it was you and decided to meet with you in the hopes that I find that revelation." She says.

My dad leans back in his chair, rubbing his temples. "So you actually wanted to see my... son."

I narrow my eyes at him as he says son with a hint of venom to it, and Dr. Liao catches on to the tension between us.

He moves on from the situation he created by saying, "Although I would have liked some prior notice, you are welcome to our facilities as we also would like to be the factor that overcomes the next step in AI.

I leave you in the capable hands of my son and wish you luck on your revelations."

We both stand and head towards the elevator as I don't even bother to look at my father.

I decide to take her to the Research and Development team as they might give her some inspiration.

While riding down the elevator slowly, I wondered how she got the revelation in the lore.

I actually remember it saying that the only problem she faced was the restrictions the government placed on her to keep the Omnic Crisis from happening.

I want Sebastian to have sentience so I was all for helping Dr. Liao with the Aurora project. I worried if I was inadvertently interfering with the timeline by helping her?

The sound of the elevator doors, snaps me out of my thoughts.

I led her to the team who was currently discussing something and their heads turn to us as we walked in.

As they all recognize Dr. Liao immediately, changing their moods as they rush to introduce themselves.

They have a conversation, where each explains their backstory as to why they joined Omnica but I stop listening.

I resume listening, when I see Dr. Liao wave bye, meaning that she had no use being here.

I take her by the AI department and find that their research is inferior to hers, and other Omnica Corporation departments.

While the researchers carry on with their work, me and Dr. Liao talk quietly near the door.

"Just what are you having trouble with on your project?" I ask.

She looks down at me contemplating something.

"Do you know where we can talk more privately?" She asks.

I smile as I have the perfect place.

An hour and a half later, we're sitting at my favorite ice cream parlor in a booth sectioned off from the other customers.

With Sebastian standing guard to the only door into the section where we are, I enjoy my apple pie ice cream while Dr. Liao looks questionably at her Sea Salt Caramel.

"When I asked for a private place to speak, I thought you were going to take me somewhere in Omnica, not to get ice cream." She says.

"Well when you're going to reveal a government secret, I'm sure you don't want to do it at your job. At least they wouldn't expect someone of your stature to be getting ice cream. Much less tell secrets here." I explain after eating a spoonful.

"That makes sense in a way i guess."

She takes a final look around the room before taking a deep breath before continuing.

"When I was a little girl, my father would stare endlessly through telescopes, searching for extraterrestrial life.

He would tell me that the next step for humanity, was meeting them and adding their knowledge to our own.

I believed him until one day, I saw the first models of omnics.

That day, I believed the future of humanity's intelligence was with omnics.

When I got hired to Omnica, I saw my chance to achieve my dream, of a sentient omnic."

I listened while continuing to eat my ice cream, but none of this came as a surprise as I already knew of her backstory. I just needed to know how far along the Aurora project was.

I clearly couldn't just come out and ask since this was a government secret and highly unlikely that any more than a handful of people knew.

"So what exactly is the problem you're facing with the AI?" I ask.

"In this day and age, AI's have emotion through the use of an algorithm called Sentiment Analysis.

This involves training AI's to recognize and classify emotions based on textual data and respond based on these emotional cues.

But the problem is those responses are already programmed predefined rules that instruct the AI on the appropriate response.

For example, if someone expresses frustration, the AI can be programmed to respond in a supportive and understanding manner.

I don't want my AI to be like that, but of course, the government shares Torbjorn's concerns and has put limitations on work.

I don't know what to do to continue on." She explains.

I hear her problems and I pause while the spoon is in my mouth.

Taking out the spoon, I offer the suggestion, "AI isn't my field of research, but for the AI you want, is it possible to remove the predefined rules altogether and let the AI learn what's the best response in certain situations."

She contemplates my suggestion. "That's a very dangerous approach. What if it learns the best way to handle disrespect is to kill?"

"Well that's what fail safes are for." I counter.

"Fail safes can only do so much. It would be inefficient to need reliance on the fail safe for every decision."

"Listening to what you described, you want a free thinking AI, one that can make it's own choices. More human. Right?"

She starts to eat her ice cream, sighing as she looks off in the distance.

"Well you have a point, but is there no better way?"

"There's always the option of replicating a human's consciousness and giving it to the AI. That way it's more manageable while keeping the free thinking aspect." I suggest.

Her spoon pauses inches away from her mouth as she thinks on what I've suggested.

Putting her spoon back to the bowl she says, "That's actually a good idea. Giving it an artificial consciousness allows the AI to learn from it's mistakes while allowing us to install fail safes at certain points that sways her choices away from the harmful decisions.

It also would allow us to easily monitor any decisions she will and have made.

Talking to you was really helpful and has given me some insightful tips. Tell me, how can I repay you for your help?"

I take a second to consider just what she could do. I really wanted to go to Nepal with Aurora on her pilgrimage but I couldn't just ask. Plus, I needed my legal guardians permission for international flights.

I decided to look out for her future creation, Echo as I really wanted to meet her in the future as well.

"When you create something like this, remember to consider that humans are more open to accepting things that resemble humans." I say.

"So what you're requesting is that I add more humanesque features to make them more acceptable for society?"

"That'd be correct."

She takes a second to think over everything that we just talked about then her eyes suddenly light up.

She stands, "Can you take me to the nearest airport, I've just had the most innovative idea that I need to work on immediately."

Surprised at her sudden outburst, I stand and pay for the food.

Sebastian takes us to the nearest airport, where Dr. Liao takes the next flight back to Australia to continue her work.

As I watch her plane take off, I let off a smile, satisfied that I helped give inspiration to the creation of Aurora.

On her flight, Mina Liao looks at the retreating airport, her meeting with Shawn Rose playing in her mind over and over.

After a couple of seconds, she pulls out a disk with a giant A that almost forms a triangle, but the bottom line curves upwards.

Rubbing the top of it, she says, "Meeting him was a necessity. We need more people like him in the future."