CHAPTER NINETEEN
“We’re trying to figure out what you needed us to do for the reverberation issues on the device,” said Ryan, looking over Sophia Ann’s shoulder. Katelyn nodded at them, turning her new laptop so they could see her design. Since she was at Belle Fleur now, she decided to use their equipment and write her designs and thoughts down in a project plan guide.
“I think I might have to create the piece needed myself,” said Katelyn. “I always knew it might be an issue for us. The good news is I have the video piece working.”
“Show us. This has someone willing to chase you down and the others. I want to know why this is so different from the other devices we’re using,” said Cam, followed by Luke, Hex, and Eric. She turned, nodding at them.
“Yeah, of course.” Katelyn kept her smile to herself, casually turning on the television with the remote hidden in her hand. Cam looked up at the television and frowned.
“Wait a minute, it’s a special report from the White House,” frowned Cam.
“I will say again, we are at war. We have been fired upon, and we will be returning fire in the defense of our country. People should take shelter in their homes. Do not go outside and wait until further notice.”
“Fucking hell, who fired on us?” asked Luke.
“Um, me,” smiled Katelyn. “It’s all AI.”
The four men stared at her and then looked at Ryan, who was smiling in their direction. Thomas, Doug, and Sophia Ann nodded.
“That was all AI?” said Hex. “The president, his voice, the background, all of it?”
“Yep. All I needed was an outline from a previous press conference. I changed the color of his tie, made him look a bit older, and then matched former mouth movements to what I needed for that series of words. I can make him look like he’s saying just about anything.”
“Fuck me,” said Luke. “We cannot let anyone get hold of this. Do you understand the chaos this would cause?”
“Of course I do,” she frowned. “Why do you think I agreed to work with all of you? I want to make sure that this isn’t used. It’s out there simply because it’s in my head and someone found out that I’d been working on it. The technology blueprint is out there, and sooner or later, others will figure out how to abuse this. It’s already being fine-tuned, but what I know could destroy entire nations.”
“What do you mean it’s out there?” asked Cam.
“Look at any social media platform, and you’ll find ads of celebrities, politicians, news anchors, actors, singers, the average man or woman, saying and doing things that are not real. You see an ad for a cool new pair of sneakers that your favorite athlete is wearing, except it’s not them. It’s all AI. Your wives surf the web and find these magnificent homes, a beautiful living room that they want to recreate in your home. Except it’s not real. It’s all generated by AI. The home doesn’t exist, the location doesn’t exist, the furnishings don’t exist.”
There was a blank stare by the men, and Katelyn shook her head, stepping closer.
“Watch,” she said, picking up the microphone. “Create a seaside cottage with a stone fireplace, green cabinets in the kitchen, top-end appliances also in green.”
The image appeared before them, and they all just stared at the screen. To further prove her point, she continued.
“Create a hanging copper pot rack. Change the green to something closer to seafoam. Place flowers on the counter. Change sunlight to a cloudy day. Place a beautiful blonde woman with a sexy figure in the kitchen, wearing a bikini.”
The image morphed before their very eyes, and the men slowly took their seats. This was absolutely terrifying.
“Within the next five years, almost everything you see on the internet will be AI-generated. You probably already see ads for things or videos and the voice is robotic and often gets words incorrect. That’s cheap AI that hasn’t been refined yet.
“Content creators will have the ability to show you something magnificent, something you desire, but it won’t be real. On the other side of that coin, you’ll be able to tell your device what you want to create, and it will happen. A book, a movie, a song, and it will do it for you. Your kids will be able to write an entire composition or thesis simply by telling AI what they want. You can tell it how you want your home to look, and in an instant, it will be generated, and all you have to do is hire the contractor.”
“But nothing will be real,” said Luke.
“It will be real. In the end. But what you see as an image of a politician doing something foolish or an actor slapping his wife may not be real. It could all be generated by some asshole trying to make headlines. Our court systems will be bombarded with lawsuits over something generated by AI that appeared on millions of phones, laptops, and tablets. People will be forced to prove their innocence because of something that isn’t true.
“If I’m a criminal, I can take the footage from my crime, place another person’s face on my body, and it will take years to sort it all out. At least, that’s what they think.”
“Wait. What do you mean? What do you mean, that’s what they think?” asked Luke. He looked at Ryan and the others, then back at Katelyn.
“AI systems are generated bycollecting large amounts of relevant data, then using complex algorithms to analyze and identify patterns within that data, allowing the AI to learn and make predictions or decisions based on new input, essentially ‘training’ the system to perform a specific task. That entire process typically involves defining a problem, gathering data, choosing an algorithm, training the model, evaluating its performance, and then deploying it for use.”
“How does that help us?” asked Cam.
“Because we’re going to create a system that we will market for businesses.”
“What!?” screamed Luke.
“Luke, let her finish,” said Ryan. “It’s not what you think.”
“The system we’re going to create has a fail-safe on it. If someone files a lawsuit against someone for creating a false advertisement, and the creator says it’s real, the system can be ‘opened,’ and the creation and creator of the content will be found.” The blank stares told her that they still didn’t understand.
“It’s like reverse engineering. Let’s take whiskey, for example. If I wanted to prove that Jameson copied the recipe for whiskey from Jack Daniels, I could look at all the ingredients, identify the process used in the creation, and determine whether it was a copyright infringement. We can do the same with this. It’s a backdoor that no one will know about but us. A secret flag, if you will, that tells authorities it’s a fake.”
“But once users figure that out, they’ll try to develop something else,” said Hex.
“That’s true. They might,” she nodded. “But the truth will be out by that time. The public will know that the newspaper, magazine, and celebrity gossip program is not reliable news. They will be discovered.”
“That’s why the agency wanted you. They want to own this technology, sell it to our enemies without their knowledge of what it can truly do, and create utter chaos.”
“I think so,” nodded Katelyn. Luke looked at the engineering team, frowning.
“I don’t understand the technology, but I know we have to do this. Finish it. Test it. And let’s launch this damn thing.”