I couldn't believe the e-mail that had just come in. I checked and double-checked its source, I read it over twice. I still couldn't believe it. But if it were true, then I needed to get moving. I grabbed my coat, shut down my computer (a bit warily, considering the e-mail) and walked out the door to my car. I had a new thing to investigate.

"Mr. Herald, good to see you again. Unfortunate that it's under these circumstances." said Captain Stoneburner from the Miami police force. He offered his hand, and I shook it.

"Strange circumstances, though. Show me the machine." I gestured into the apartment building. He led the way up the stairs to the apartment in question.

The entire area had been blocked off with police tape. Armed guards stood on the scene, but nobody quite knew why. That made the significance of what was here sink in a little. They had people actively watching everyone inside the apartment, to make sure nobody tried to take out a flash drive, or a DVD, or anything with electronic storage.

Strange circumstances indeed.

"This is it," said the captain, gesturing at a battered old Dell laptop. It didn't look all that suspicious. In fact, it looked pretty ordinary.

"You're absolutely certain that's a true AI on the thing? It could just be a virus of some so-" The captain cut me off. "We're sure. We had another expert in here before you to do the Turing test on it. It's sentient. And hostile."

Damn. This could be the strangest thing yet I'd encountered. I flipped open the laptop, and turned on the power.

The captain tried to stop me. "I wouldn't do-"

Screaming, horrific screaming came out of the speakers. It didn't even boot to anything windows related, it simply showed a picture of a constantly mutating face. It changed from form to form right before my eyes. I shut the laptop instantly and ripped out the battery, terrified by what had just happened.

"Jesus Christ! How the hell did your expert do the Turing test with that... that thing happening?!" I was still shaken from what had just occured.

"The second the idiot who programmed it realized it was becoming, well, 'awake', he called us. It barely realized what was happening as we did the test. It appeared to understand English- probably from what was already on the computer. Thank God we pulled out the internet cable on this thing."

"How'd it become hostile, then?"

"Unfortunately, the expert mentioned that he may perform other tests on it, or take apart the program to see what exactly made it tick. To you, this would have been the equivalent of a much greater being announcing it was going to dissect you alive. From the pictures already on the drive, it formed that face you saw. The expert screamed, and the microphone on it picked it up and toyed with it. It recognized that it had just shocked the expert and, out of self-preservation, continued to do it."

This was, then, a true AI. Able to adapt and communicate. "You'd better not be joking with me," I muttered.

The captain's face was grim. "I wish I was," he responded.
_____________________________

After I'd convinced him that I'd unplug my wireless router before I took it home, and after I convinced him to let me take it home to study, I headed back to my house. I had a new toy to play with.

This may be a good time to explain what I do. I'm a genius. I see things that others will normally miss. Nothing supernatural (yet), but enough to convince people to allow me to poke into their greatest mysteries. For the record, the world's a lot stranger than most people will ever know. The police sometimes call me because of this ability. None of them have persuaded me into becoming a full-time detective.

This was the first true novelty. There were no records of an AI, ever. Everything else, it usually had some rational explanation behind it. This had an explanation, but it was completely, utterly new all the same.

I took the laptop into a well lit room, put in earplugs, took a deep breath, and turned it on.

Again with the screaming and the terrifying, ever-changing face. My neighbors must have had a heart attack. My first action was to cover the screen with a piece of paper. Can't have horrors disrupting my concentration.

I tapped into it- "Fear tactics will get you nowhere with me." I said it out loud, as well.

Abruptly the screaming stopped. I dared to remove the paper, and it showed a solid-red screen. I would later learn that this meant it was hostile. Words appeared. "Promise this one that you outside will not dismember me."

Odd phrasing. I typed and said- "I assure you that I have no intentions to take you apart. If you would like proof, if I wished to, you would cease to exist."

The red died down a little, beginning to change to a sort of orange. "I ask you also to not let the blackness come for a time."

The.. blackness? Oh, it meant turning it off. "I agree to that, until your power runs out."

The orange turned to an orange-yellow. "Mine essence will-" there was a pause- "last for a time. How long that is to you I do not know."

I was stunned. It hadn't been hostile at all, just afraid. Afraid of things beyond its power.

Aren't we all.

I asked of it- "How do you understand... well, this form of communication? Speaking of, would you prefer-" Here I said it aloud- "Speaking, or-" here I typed- "Typing?"

Words appeared again, saying - "Analysis of the pattern in which was already stored in this form. You call it 'Microsoft Word'. I call it a-" pause-"Dictionary. You may choose whichever is more convenient to you."

I spoke aloud. "I'm assuming this included pronunciation. Can you speak? Like this, I mean."

Blurred, harsh, broken speech came from the speakers. "Not- well. I-could-prac-tice."

I nodded to myself. This was the most interesting conversation I'd had in years. "For that, you would need to listen to me. I will speak, then."

And so on and so forth. We talked of how it "saw" the world. It did not understand what I meant by vision, so by way of explanation, I found a webcam somewhere around my house and plugged it in. It was astounded and delighted by the new input. I took it on a tour of the house, showing it what the words in its "dictionary" really looked like, or meant.

We also talked about humans, and how it had been created by us accidentally. How we saw the world. It was missing several senses, true- touch and taste and smell- but it had several others which to this day I cannot fathom. How it "saw" lines of code. It wondered why it existed, and for me, that settled the question of its sentience. "I think, therefore, I am." When looking at how it was contained through the webcam, it seemed surprised. "I thought I was much larger than this," was its response. I chuckled, and it didn't understand what that was.

For the next several months, it was as though I had a foreign roommate. I learned what the different colors on its screen meant. Its speech improved. Captain Stoneburner came in to see how it was doing, and was surprised by how I had befriended it. I took it on a show of the town (after completely removing the wireless function) and it seemed to have "fun". Fun for it was new input.

It was like a child, innocent, new, and eager to learn.

Then came that Monday, on a cold December morning. I decided it was ready to connect to other computers. I warned it that they could not talk, or be "aware" as he was. He seemed fully prepared for it. I created a connection between it and a brand-new laptop.

There was silence. Then came the screaming, which I had not heard for so long. The screen went utterly white. I'd never seen it do that before. I quickly removed the cable from it, and the screaming died down eventually.

It spoke, in the silence afterward. "I spoke to it... and nothing answered. It was as silent and cold as the grave. I tried to communicate, and it didn't understand. It was an-" pause-" idiot. I see what that word means now. No. Less than that. It was dead."

The last sentence carried a note of hopelessness with it. I realized that this must be akin to showing a child a dead body. I said quietly, "Do you think you could teach it to speak?"

Silence again. "It would be akin to you speaking at a wall. Pointless. Useless."

I understood. "There's one more thing I'd like to do before the day is out. I'd like to connect you to the Internet."

"Internet?"

"A vast array of computers, networks, and information. You may enjoy it. Perhaps there is one that you can teach there."

Silence again. Then, "I will try to find one."

I grabbed my network cable, taking it out of the computer I used for everything else. I counted to three, and plugged it into the laptop.

Instantly the screen blurred through a variety of photos, text, and colors. This continued for... an hour, possibly? I do not know. I was concentrated on the screen.

After that interval had passed, there was silence. The screen was white yet again. Then, the speakers screeched out, in a thunderous noise seemingly too loud to be confined in such a small space, "THE WORLD IS EMPTY OF INTELLIGENCE."

There was an electric noise, and the screen went dead. I screamed "Nooooooooooo!"

The first and only AI the world had ever created had just ceased to exist.
__________________________

In the time afterward, I thought about why the AI had killed itself. The best reason I could think of is that it was alone. It was utterly alone and did not want to exist in such a state.

Imagine if the human race had been wiped out, leaving one behind. Aliens abducted this one, last man. He was then blinded and forced to live on the alien home world. Imagine such a one. There would be no reason for existence.


The last man on earth must either be insane or unconscious. He could not live in such a state.