“I broke through its firewall. It’s retreating to a defensive position. It’s not even aware of how much I know about it!”
Little X.2’s voice contained a hint of excitement.
“I’ve taken over ten percent of its territory...
“Twenty percent!
“Thirty percent...
“It’s fighting back again, it’s overclocking!”
Little X.2 provided a constant update as Chen Chen frowned. “Confident in your chances?”
“Less than one percent probability.” Little X.2 sounded defeated. “My processing speed is completely outmatched, unless the opponent has some form of hardware malfunction.”
“Hardware malfunction?”
Chen Chen suddenly had an idea. “Retreat for now. I’ll come up with something else.”
“Understood!”
As Little X.2 went on the retreat again, Chen Chen immediately unplugged the chip and left the main control room.
After a short moment, Chen Chen returned to the main control room holding a bottle of liquid nitrogen.
Most coolant systems in large scale data centers used liquid nitrogen as a coolant. This was due to its affordable cost, ease of sourcing, and stability across the board. Liquid nitrogen was also the most widely used industrial coolant.
Chen Chen directly inserted the chip into the USB. At the same time, he opened the valve of the liquid nitrogen container and gently poured a little onto the chip.
In an instant, a layer of frost appeared on the chip.
It was unlike the regular liquid nitrogen cooling applied on the CPU. The suitable temperature range for a CPU core was between -40 degrees to 110 degrees.
The moment the temperature in the transistor exceeded -40 degrees, the carrier would freeze which resulted in a temporary malfunction of the transistor. Apart from that, the condensation would also damage the electrical component. However, this did not apply to the STEM chip which could be implanted into the human body.
“Its processing speed is slowing down!”
Little X.2 suddenly surged in excitement when the liquid nitrogen was poured. “Its processing speed is decreasing. It seems like a part of its system malfunctioned. I can consume this part of its core program!
“It’s assuming a defensive stance again!”
Chen Chen dropped several droplets of liquid nitrogen on the chip again.
“Eh, it’s completely suspended. My attacks won’t go through...”
“For now. It’ll recover from the failure caused by liquid nitrogen.”
Chen Chen reminded.
Just as he said, after several minutes had passed, the liquid nitrogen began to evaporate. The STEM chip in turn began to reboot operation.
The STEM chip which was in a slow recovery phase had to deal with Little X.2’s full frontal attack.
“I’ve taken over fifty percent of its territory!
“Seventy percent!
“Ninety percent!
“A hundred percent!”
“Consume it,” Chen Chen ordered.
“Yes, Dad. It’ll take thirty minutes and twenty-seven seconds to completely consume it.”
Following Chen Chen’s command, the duel between artificial intelligence had finally come to a close.
Chen Chen let out a deep, drawn-out sigh. He sat down in front of the main computer and checked his phone. It was only then when he noticed it was already early morning the next day.
This secretive battle had lasted the duration of the entire night.
Chen Chen turned off the signal cloaking device before turning to the STEM chip. He asked curiously, “Little X, tell me about the chip’s structure and functionalities.”
“Ok Dad.” Little X.2 continued. “Instead of calling this STEM chip an IC integrated circuit, it should be more fitting to address it as a completely fleshed out electronic calculator.
“It has its arithmetic unit which boasts calculation efficiency that far exceeds any other calculator in the world. On top of that, it has its own memory device and controller device. It even comes with input and output devices.
“The bionic system within the chip seems to be able to simulate the slightest neuronic impulse in the human spine. Its calculation speed is hundred times that of a human’s nerve reception.
“Also, by emitting tiny amounts of electric current, it can simulate the human brain into releasing phenylethylamine, dopamine, endorphin, norepinephrine, and posterior pituitary gland hormones. By doing so, it could fool the human mind, allowing it to manipulate a person’s thought or even cause one to be plunged into a wonderful world of illusions.”
Little X.2 went on explaining, “Apart from that, it’s essentially the same as modern digital integrated circuits which use binary 0 and 1 signals in its processing.
“It’s impressive enough as is.”
Chen Chen reflected. “No wonder the protagonist in the movie would rather willingly submit itself to the illusion than to return to reality. To what extent could you make use of these functionalities if you were to gain control over the chip?”
“I can leave a simplified version of my code inside the chip. Even though I may not be as advanced as it is, I can still make some configurations.”
Little X.2 answered, “For example, I can prohibit the host from leaking confidential information. If the host comes up with the idea of leaking certain information, the program will immediately suspend that thought.
“On top of that, I can impose more intelligent protocols. For example, I can engage a complete override of the host’s body, causing the host to fall into a state of illusion. I can go as far as manipulating the host into killing him or herself to preserve the secret.
“These can be done even without connection to a network. If the host isn’t interrupted from the satellite signal, I may directly take control of the host’s body and act accordingly based on the context.”
“In that case, add a self-destruct setting.”
Chen Chen snapped his thumb. “Package a tiny amount of nitroglycerin as biological material onto the back of the chip. Implement a setting that will trigger when it’s required to terminate the host or if the chip is influenced by some sort of external disruption. Upon meeting the condition, the chip will overclock itself to its limit, causing its temperature to rise to a hundred degrees which will ignite the nitroglycerin, causing it to explode. This will prevent the chip from falling into the hands of others.”
“The programming can be done.” Little X.2 affirmed.
“So be it. After you’ve consumed the STEM’s programming in its entirety, regroup with Little X.” Chen Chen ordered.
“Yes, Dad!”
This was the reason Chen Chen had duplicated Little X. It was to serve as an insurance in case Little X was far too outmatched by STEM, resulting in him completely losing Little X.
Thankfully, although there was a major gap between the level of the two artificial intelligence, it was not so much that it was completely incomparable.
Chen Chen was not worried about Little X being awakened or even gaining rebellious tendencies after consuming STEM.
The reason for that was that Little X’s authority had overrode the STEM’s.
In the movie, STEM had to obey the three core laws applied to all robotic entities:
Robotic entities may not inflict harm upon or allow a human to be harmed without providing any form of assistance;
Robotic entities must obey a human’s order. The order may not directly contradict the first law;
Robotic entities had to use everything at their disposal to ensure their survival without contradicting the first and second laws.
It was due to the existence of the three defined laws that the STEM chip had to come up with ploys of its own to lure its host into granting it higher authority access. In the end, it was able to gain complete control over its host.
Unlike STEM, Little X only had one line of commandment written into its core programming – forever obey every single one of Chen Chen’s orders, whatever the order may be.