Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller (27 page)

General Shields and Lin Liu entered
and seated themselves on Vish’s side of the table. All three of
them faced Josh. The cold atmosphere in the room got even
icier.

“
Alright,” said the
General, “let’s convene this meeting of the Board of Directors of
CyberAI Defense, Inc. Josh, we’d like to inspect the
deep
learning
source code from the past three months.”

“
General, I didn’t
bring
the source
code
. As you both know, I negotiated for
the right to maintain ownership of independently developed
intellectual property.”

“
Independent
?” Vish fumed. “You used
NSA supercomputers and linguists to perfect the
algorithms!”

“
My attorney and I believe
that the source code belongs to me. At this time, I choose not to
give it to you,” said Josh, coolly.

General Shields was livid.
“That’s bullshit. You know a judge will order you to produce the
code. That’s strike one. Here’s the next pitch. And it’s going to
be strike two. You told me that you were solely concentrating
on
cybersecurity
within your
deep
learning
code
.” General Shields slid
a heavy
manila
folder across the table.

The folder was nothing
less than a dossier of everything Josh had done on a computer or
cell phone over the past three months. The first pages of the file
were Amazon.com and credit card receipts. Almost all of the books
Josh bought
were
highlighted
in yellow,
except
one technical book on
deep learning
. As Josh reviewed
more pages, certain words were consistently underlined. This made
clear what selectors the NSA was employing:

‘
Ark, aka Ark of
the Covenant,’

‘
Temple,’

‘
Dome of the
Rock,’

‘
Israel,’

‘
Jerusalem,’

‘
Jew,’

’
Judaism,’

‘
Bible,’

‘
Archeology,’

and ‘Rebecca Roberts, aka
Becca.’

Selectors were
exactly
what
they
sounded
like
. The NSA copied nearly every bit of
data that moved through the air or wires. They stored it in massive
buildings around the world. While it was impossible to view or
listen to all that content, it was possible to use selectors
to search the collected data
retroactively
. Conclusions could
be derived
after
the fact.

Josh reviewed his book receipts,
credit card statements, emails, web searches, social media
activity, website history, and his cell phone metadata—mostly calls
to and from Becca.

“
Becca!” shouted Josh.
“Why do you have to involve her?” The pit of fear in his stomach
morphed into
rage
. Josh thought of the General as a
second father. A better father. How could he do this? Next, Josh
saw all of his text messages with Becca. It was obvious that Josh
talked to Becca about the Ark. It was equally
evident
that Josh and Becca
were dating.

General Shields observed
Josh intently. “Yeah, no one here knew you
were dating
Becca—Becca who
resigned from Gamification Systems yesterday. Do you know anything
about that?”

Josh didn’t answer the question. Lin
squirmed in her seat. Josh thought he recognized empathy in her
eyes. Then, he saw the logs from the NSA supercomputers. They
detailed all his activity, including his queries of the neural
network. The NSA must have generated the selectors by studying his
queries.

Josh put the file down and looked at
the General. Josh’s hardened glance masked deep hurt.

“
Josh, you lied to
me,
and you lied
to Vish,” said General Shields, gravely. “It’s obvious that
you
were engaged
in something I directed you to stop. You’re not
authorized to seek the location of the Ark. I
told you
, for the sake of
your
own
welfare and the security of the United States, to stop work
on the Ark. You disobeyed me—”

“
I’m not one of your
Airmen, General Shields. I’m an entrepreneur that wants to change
the world with AI. We’re partners; you’re not my boss. And you
don’t just turn off this type of AI. Don’t you get it? We’re
approaching strong, general AI. I could have asked the AI anything.
It doesn’t just learn about
cybersecurity
. For example, I could
have asked the AI if you were having an affair. You can’t make it
stop learning.

“
I
created
the neural network.
But, even as the creator, I don’t know what the AI will learn. I
didn’t write a program to find the Ark. I wrote a deep learning
algorithm, composed of a neural network of over 1000 layers.
Digital natural selection chose each
layer.
The algorithm processes text. It
learns. You ask the AI questions. Based on what it’s learned, it
makes inferences and predictions.

“
It can make predictions
about cyber-events. May I remind you that the current metric has
increased to 92.7% accuracy? It can make
predictions
about financial
markets. It can make predictions about the Cowboy’s Super Bowl
chances. And it can make predictions about the location of the
Ark.
It’s all the same
neural network. It’s like trying to program your
child’s thoughts. But the child has to become an adult.”

And then Josh said it.

“
Did you cram thoughts
into your son’s head? Did you force
Charlie
to be a SEAL?”

Were there not other people in the
room, General Shields looked like he would have thrown punches. His
square jaw tensed, ferociously. Josh could see the vein on the
right side of the General’s head, pulsating. Moments past while the
General struggled to maintain his poise.

No one uttered a word. Breaths spoke
volumes.

“
My son died in the
service of his country,” Shields said slowly. “Charlie might not
have agreed with everything he was asked to do,
but he realized
that senior
leaders had a broader perspective than him. He subjugated his
personal desires for something greater than himself. And Josh,
that’s strike three.

“
Discovery of the Ark of
the Covenant has unknown geopolitical ramifications. You’re not
authorized to ask this question. I told you to stop. You didn’t.
You lied to Vish, Lin, and me—your lead investor. You also haven’t
produced the source code requested by the CyberAI Board. For these
reasons, I’d like to call a vote. This vote is to remove you from
the Board, remove you from being CEO, and to terminate your
employment with CyberAI.

“
I vote yes,” said
Shields.

“
I vote yes,” said
Vish.

Josh didn’t bother to vote.

General Shields continued, “Alright,
you’re the new CEO, Vish.”

The words cut through Josh’s heart.
CyberAI was his dream. It was the reason he left MIT. It was the
cause of the rupture in his relationship with his
father.

The former CyberAI CEO stared at the
table. He struggled to process the betrayal. And he was angry.
“Gentlemen, I do regret lying to you. But, who are you General
Shields to deny an entire race the right to see a relic from their
ancient heritage? I don’t even know if the AI is accurate. You’re
claiming US sovereignty over a piece of history that belongs to the
Jewish people. God never gave you that right.”

Josh could hardly believe that word
came from his mouth. He parents didn’t practice Judaism. But, Josh
was becoming interested in God. And, Josh was becoming thoroughly
disappointed in man.

“
God,
really
?” replied the General. “Here’s the
truth, son. If you continue to search for the Ark, the United
States will designate you as a terrorist. I’ve already added Becca
and you to the TSA No-Fly-List. I’ll know if you guys attempt to
leave the country. I’ve got a warrant from the FISA Court for all
the information in the
folder.
A
physical search is being executed right
now upon your apartment in North Laurel. We’re going to recover our
source code.
We’ll carefully
monitor everything you do, until you quit searching for something
that imperils the lives of so many.

“
Now, if you
abandon
your
pursuit of the Ark, and give us the copies of the source code in
your possession; Vish and I will try to make sure that your equity
position stays roughly the same. Otherwise, you can expect to be
diluted.

“
Security will escort
you
to your office
to pack your things. Then, they’ll walk you to
your car. I’m going to meet with Becca now. Good day, Josh.
Be careful
.”

Two NSA
police officers
led Josh out of the sixth-floor conference room. One of the
officers carried an assault rifle. Josh frantically reached for his
phone in an attempt to warn Becca. The phone was useless. Someone
was jamming the signal.

*

“
Becca, I want to thank
you for meeting so quickly. It’s my understanding that you’ve given
your two weeks’ notice to Gamification?” asked the
General.

“
Yes, sir,” replied
Becca.

“
Becca, you’re a very
talented software engineer. May I ask why you’re
leaving?”

“
I’m just not happy here
anymore. I’d like to move on.”

The General pressed, “Becca, I know
you might not understand everything we do here at the Accelerator,
but we’re trying to make America safe—”

“
General Shields, you’re
building robots to kill people. You have
human beings
in GAMESPACE that are
executing other
human
beings
in
REALSPACE;
only they think they are
playing a game. Are you going to pay your hitmen in
Bitcoin?”

“
Becca, Swarmbots are ISR
platforms. They don’t kill.”

“
Save it General. You
picked
Fog of War
for a reason. I don’t want to be a part of it. I understand
that despicable men beheaded your son. I’m sorry. I’m sure you
think America isn’t doing enough. But, breaking laws so you can
seek your revenge is not the answer.
That won’t
get your son
back.”

The General’s face went flush
red.

Lin inserted herself into
the
conversation
. “Becca, do you have
someone you love?”

“
Yes.”

Lin continued, “Now
imagine your significant other is in Syria.
He’s been assigned
a kill or
capture mission for a
high-ranking
member of the Caliphate.
Think about him
hard
. He’s all decked out in
special
operator’s gear. He’s scared. His adrenaline is
pumping. Then,
he’s given the order. He blows the door off its hinges and
rushes into a dark room.

“
If we owned the
technology
to
not
put your loved
one
in danger; wouldn’t it be
immoral
not
to use
it? Think of how many
lives drones have saved. Swarmbots are just a logical extension of
remotely piloted aircraft.”

Becca examined Lin. Then
the General.
“Listen, I
understand what you are saying. I just don’t want
to work for a company that does these things. I want to make. I
want to create. I don’t
want
to destroy life for a living. I’m
not in the military. And on the topic of drones, you know better
than I, that we’re not always killing the right people.

“
When you scratch one
Caliphate member from your kills list, you add
10
more. Your kill lists
don’t ever decrease. They only get bigger.
Look, I
don’t know the answer. I
do know that this is something I don’t want
to be associated with.
And,
I think our country should have a national conversation about this.
Do we
want
to be a country that assigns robots to kill
people?”

General Shields spoke in
measured tones. “Becca, when
you’re
young, things look
black
and white.
As you gain experience, I can assure you that the entire world is
just gray. You’re right about the drone program. We are killing too
many innocents. I think we need to
reign
drones
in
. That’s why Swarmbots are so important.
They will target one person, and one person only. That’s very
different than aiming a Hellfire at
a SIM
card.