Knight Industries Vehicle Assembly Plant - White Pine Iowa

Will looked across the desk at both the seated man that was head of this place and what he presumed was a personal lawyer. Then he looked at the paper he was expected to sign.

"Standard form release and absolution of all liabilities by Knight Industries," The lawyer helpfully clarified. Will held no anger toward the Asian man. He was just some flunky doing his job protecting Company interests.

Still. He looked at the distressingly thick stack of papers beneath the release form. "And the rest of these?"

The lawyer met Will's gaze and calmly stated, "Definition of what you are taking custody of, a brief overview of prior incidents, recommendations, contact information."

RC stood flanking Will's left side, as the lawyer flanked the other man's right. The technician bent down to whisper in Will's ear. "It's alright. He represented my dad a few years back. He likes being thorough."

"I get to keep a copy of the paperwork for records, right?" When the lawyer nodded at Will's question he set the form to one side and started skimming.

Both men at the opposite end of the desk frowned as they saw Will remove his glasses and bring the papers close to his face.

The seated man coughed to try politely to get Will's attention. "I can have that printed out in larger font if that would help."

"That's kind of you," Will briefly set the paperwork down to look across the desk. "However my eye's natural focal point is fairly close, and to put text at a point where I can focus with glasses would make reading it annoying for everyone. Still, it's appreciated."

Both men resumed their silent waiting as Will read through dry statements of both KARR's initial reactivation, and then his being found later. Eventually, he sat the papers down and gave a long sigh.

"Please understand that what I'm going to say doesn't reflect on either of you personally," He then gestured to the lawyer, "Or any sort of threat of legal action."

"Of course." The Lawyer nodded, hands clasped behind his back.

"What Knight Industries did was shameful and grossly negligent." There was a hardness to Will's voice as he spoke. Not anger, just him attempting to impress the severity of what was being said. "These papers don't detail KARR's initial tests or shutdown, and he hasn't shared any of that with me so everything before the break-in that reactivated him is an unknown."

"But?" The man sitting across from Will asked.

"Mister Farquad." Will looked the man in the eye. His dark brown meeting weathered hazel. "Between the absolute lack of security needed to allow two drunk hobos break-in, no specialized alarms to notify anyone directly beyond a general breaking happening and apparently the man sent out having no knowledge of what was in that building? I sure as hell hope your security has improved in the forty years between then and now."

"It has," Farquad reassured. Yet the plant manager paused, studying Will before motioning for him to continue.

"Then there's the fact nobody was sent to collect KARR after the initial encounter. Functional or not that is still a fairly sensitive material. I'm glad you ended up not leaving him scattered that second time, but I can absolutely understand why he is utterly terrified of returning to your custody."

Farquad then looked to RC, "Is this so?"

"It is, Sir," RC confirmed as he leaned in to speak. "When testing presented a scenario where KARR ran someone over to avoid potentially becoming part of a wider accident he started fixating on the concept that he would be put back in 'the box,'"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

There was a pause before RC continued talking, elaborating on the downward spiral KARR went through. "Between the simulation itself, and the error logs pointed at KARR knowing he had done something we would see as a mistake, and everything started looping into how that decision had led to his confinement, which lead to a directive conflict."

"But," The lawyer asked, his hands unclasping as he gestured, "Wouldn't that matter? Being put into storage does fall within self-preservation."

"Yes and No," RC looked from Farquad to the lawyer. "Based on the raw data and KARR's own behavior it seems he feels that simply going into storage makes him completely defenseless, which makes any attempt at protecting himself after that impossible if things go sour. Then there's the problem of it being a self-aware mind being left in isolation. We're still trying to figure out why KARR had any awareness at all after the initial shutdown by Wilton Knight, much less how he had any awareness while in storage."

"I see," The Lawyer frowned.

Farquad, however, had a question. "And you're absolutely sure that the KI-Six line won't suddenly develop awareness? Setting aside the problems in rolling out thousands of them, the idea of one of them becoming aware while in a shipping container and left to sit isolated in the dark for months or even years doesn't sit well with me."

All four men shared a moment to internally shudder at the imagery that brought to mind.

"Absolutely," RC stated. "My dad was on the KI-Six project. We've had entire teams go through the coding and other teams going through how the Personal Assistant program responds across a dozen differing platforms to avoid a single example hiding its true nature."

This caused Will to nod in spite of himself, "Cross-referenced and compared against any existing AI you have on hand to make sure you didn't have a whole fleet of Sleepers?"

"Precisely." RC gave Will an approving nod. "KARR actually represents an amazing opportunity since I was able to subject KARR to an abridged version of that test and his responses are completely separate from every response from the KI-Six units. As he runs on near-identical architecture, that puts everyone on the ethics board, and KORRA, at ease."

There was a flicker of something across Farquad's face as he took in this information. "Good. Very good. We don't need the headache that a million cars demanding personhood would bring."

"Speaking of." Will started.

Only for the lawyer to raise his hand, "Regarding KARR's status as an independent person? No. I can forward you the information that won't lead to truly sensitive data being released. However, the short form is as of right now KARR is not eligible for personhood."

"Excuse me?" Will leaned forward to look the Lawyer over. "Why not? It's not like he's Cleverbot, ChatGPT, or Dalli. Just-"

For a brief moment, Farquad frowned. It only lasted a moment, but Will caught the change in expression before the man spoke.

"Mister Thatcher please, try to understand. Our non-pursuit of AI rights is as much for their good as everyone else's. For now, they can be kept hidden, tucked away where they are with people who can keep them away from other companies or even the military."

He paused and gave a shameful shake of his head, "And I'm sure you can understand the sort of hard-on that lot of baby-killers would have for perfectly obedient machines. Even if the AI literally are incapable of killing. Imagine a wall of tanks showing up with perfect aim that can disable an opponent's ground forces, or shoot down anything and everything they have to throw at us."

Will sat there thinking this over.

Then Farquad gave one final point. "Now imagine everything I just said. Except the AI is allowed to kill."

Will tensed as he could practically hear Lynda Hammilton's opening narration. "Judgement Day."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

RC stood with Will in the front lobby of the plant's office section. "Will about-"

"I know," Will sounded resigned as the pair walked outside. "I don't agree with the logic, but it at least is a line I can follow."

"You need a ride home?" RC asked as he gestured to the red car he had been driving.

"Nah, sent Joe a text she should be by fairly soon." Almost as if Will's words had summoned her, Jocelyn drove up in the modified fiero that served as KARR's new platform.

"Come with us if you want to be Fed." KARR kept his voice emotionless and deadpan as the passenger door opened on its own.

RC tilted his head as he saw Will get inside. "See you 'round man."

Will gave a wave before they drove off, leaving RC to walk to his car alone.

When he got in and started driving he tapped a button on the center console. "KORRA. I'd like to submit a request to extend my stay here."

"Records put your assignment at ending in three days." KORRA's voice was calm.

"I know, and that's why I want it extended. KARR isn't going to react well if Will breaks the bad news, and I kinda want to be on hand when he hits the track next weekend."