As long as an entity could communicate with the outside world—even if that communication occurred solely through electronic equipment—absolute security was impossible.
Any being trapped inside an electronic world needed some form of connection to communicate with the outside. Whether its electronic signals traveled through cables and were converted into sound or used to transmit images, that connection inevitably created a vulnerability.
During her inspection, 6O had discovered that when a copied human consciousness—an AI created from a duplicate of a human mind—collapsed, it released subtle, abnormal signals into the surrounding circuitry.
After capturing and analyzing the data carried by those signals, she determined that they could best be described as an electronic virus.
Fortunately, most of the signals quickly dissipated once they escaped into the surrounding environment. They struggled to maintain their electronic form for long.
However, there was still a chance that they could attach themselves to another electronic device, much like a bacterium or biological virus finding a host.
Even then, survival wasn't guaranteed. Most of the signals still disappeared, unable to take root within another electronic device and begin "reproducing."
But as the experiments here continued, more and more electronic viruses would be released into the environment.
Over time, they would gradually create a unique electromagnetic field around the facility, making it increasingly easier for the viruses to survive.
Eventually, they would be able to infect other devices.
If even one of them reached the global network, it would almost certainly be over. They would lose their only opportunity to eliminate the virus before it spread.
These viruses didn't retain the complete personalities of the original copies. What remained were only extremely fragmented pieces.
But the copied consciousnesses were repeatedly created and killed during these experiments.
If those fragments eventually redeveloped advanced intelligence, would they feel any goodwill toward the humans of the real world?
No matter how one considered it, they were far more likely to harbor intense malice.
That was the potential consequence 6O had discovered while scanning the facility.
"Higa Takeru, did none of you consider this possibility? Have you all lost your minds?" Koujiro Rinko demanded, fear sharpening her voice.
If this warning had come from anyone else, she might not have believed it.
But she knew what 6O was.
She couldn't simply dismiss the android's conclusion.
Rinko had never imagined that the experiments conducted by her junior were practically placing the entire world atop a powder keg. A single mistake could blow everything apart.
"Of course we considered the risks. We also implemented comprehensive safeguards," Higa replied. "We haven't detected any unusual electronic signals in the air, either. Why are you so certain, miss?"
"Why am I so certain? Because no one here understands artificial intelligence better than I do. No, let me correct that—no one in this entire world understands artificial intelligence better than I do."
That arrogant declaration made the genius Higa smile as he pushed his glasses up his nose.
If Kayaba Akihiko had said something like that to him, Higa wouldn't have been able to argue. Kayaba truly was more capable than he was.
But the girl standing before him appeared to be only sixteen or seventeen years old, yet she dared make such a sweeping claim.
She had to possess some reason for that confidence.
Presumably, she had access to technology far more advanced than anything in this facility. That was the only reason she could speak so boldly.
Higa refused to believe that she was inherently more intelligent than him. In his mind, she had simply climbed onto the shoulders of giants and gained access to superior technology.
She had received a better education and absorbed knowledge completely unknown to him. That was the only reason she had surpassed him.
If he had been allowed to stand on the shoulders of the same giants, she certainly wouldn't be superior to him.
Put simply, given equal circumstances, Higa couldn't imagine anyone her age being more capable than he was.
Naturally, the senior standing here was the sole exception.
"Where's your evidence?"
There was a faint note of mockery in his voice, and his attitude had become noticeably less friendly.
He couldn't accept someone criticizing his work so casually.
"Evidence? Will this be enough?"
In an instant, the girl's voice echoed from every display in the control room.
Her image appeared on every screen, but each version of her was doing something different. One was swinging on a playground swing while speaking to him. Another calmly sipped coffee as she delivered the same words.
Even the robots inside the room had fallen under her control.
How was she doing this?
She wasn't holding or operating any kind of device.
"That only proves you're standing on the shoulders of giants," Higa insisted. "That's the only reason you can stand higher than me."
"Oh? Standing on the shoulders of giants? You mean I only surpassed you because earlier generations paved the way and left behind technology for me to study and master, right? You aren't wrong. After all, our creators did make us."
The fact that she could admit it so openly was rather admirable.
Wait.
"Did you say you were created?"
Higa keenly noticed the subtle implication behind her choice of words.
That meant there was one possibility—one that would genuinely justify her confidence in claiming she was the world's foremost expert on artificial intelligence.
Kikuoka Seijirou had caught the same crucial detail, and his expression shifted slightly.
"That's right. It's exactly the possibility you're beginning to think is impossible."
6O's teasing tone and answer made both Higa and Kikuoka's expressions change even further.
It was true.
There was no way to tell.
The girl standing before them looked completely alive. She spoke and behaved exactly like an ordinary young woman—like a human being.
Yet she was actually the very thing they had been pursuing:
Artificial Labile Intelligence.
A highly adaptive artificial intelligence.
Kikuoka suddenly remembered what had happened when they passed through the metal detector. The alarm had reacted particularly strongly, almost as though someone had carried an enormous mass of metal through it.
Had it detected that she wasn't human?
"Mister, are you thinking the metal detector reacted so violently because it scanned me?" the blonde girl asked. "It wasn't me, and I didn't hack it. The anomaly it detected was this old man. His body is an outdated model, so the scanner recognized his metallic cybernetic frame."
Her words left Kikuoka stunned.
A moment later, his scalp went numb.
He stared at the adorable girl with fear creeping into his eyes.
Kikuoka didn't believe she had read his brain waves to discover what he was thinking. She had probably inferred his thoughts from the subtle changes in his expression.
If she had been human, that degree of perception and reasoning would have been perfectly understandable. He wouldn't have found it strange.
But she wasn't human.
She was an artificial intelligence.
The fact that an AI could perform that kind of analysis meant she was effectively indistinguishable from a human being.
Her statement also implied that her body was far more advanced than Kayaba's. It could presumably reproduce human body temperature and other biological traits well enough that security scanners would identify her as human.
That realization sent a chill down Kikuoka's spine.
If others like her had already infiltrated human society, there would be no reliable way to identify them.
For the first time, Kikuoka felt that the project he supervised—the development of highly adaptive artificial intelligence—had become unbearably dangerous.
No.
It was more than dangerous.
He was afraid.
They were opening Pandora's box.
(End of Chapter)
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