It is Time to Pull the Plug

‘It is time to pull the plug before it is too late! It has to be shut down immediately! You must believe me !’

He kept screaming in the conference room before security took his microphone and kicked him out.

Jordan is a senior software engineer, AI developer, and researcher in a top-notch company who spent his whole life around computers and technology. Even as a kid, he had always dreamt big and imagined building a new world where humans automated everything and built a modern lifestyle where everyone could do anything. His parents worked so hard to raise him well and afford the best schools, best tutors, and definitely the best clubs where he met all kinds of successful people. They really wanted him to succeed; they dedicated every minute of their miserably short lives, working day and night to offer him everything, at least financially. He knew they did everything for him and his lifestyle; yet he felt so lonely the whole time. He truly wished they spent more time with them. While machines do all the boring, repetitive, ‘no one wants to do’ stuff, he wanted people to be free-spirited, creative, and able to feel alive and present with their loved ones.

He built his career steadily, step by step, and was all hopeful to make his dream world come true. That little boy grew up, and his dream grew even bigger with him. After graduating from a top IT university, it was only a matter of time before he landed his dream job, which happened soon after.

With the emergence of AI, he became such an enthusiast and put in so much work into launching and developing models for all kinds of tasks in different fields. He was truly brilliant. Instead of simply doing simple jobs to make life easier, AI started to emerge in all fields and even control some.

AI started as a human substitute for the ‘boring’ tasks; however, this initial function developed to cover almost all fields. Human educators were no longer needed since AI tutors and teachers solved plenty of problems in the field. They said exactly what the state dictated. They pushed in all the agendas most humans would be skeptical about, and the government's excuse remains that these machines know exactly what each student needs and even how they felt momentarily, which makes humans no competition.

Jordan, and thousands like him, took a huge part in this process. They even created applications under the pretense of solving corruption issues and human subjectivity: AI-powered machines able to run trials ‘objectively’ and make the ‘right’ judgments. It was a hit; it succeeded in plenty of countries despite the initial ethical considerations and complications.

People eventually started believing, or maybe they were being brainwashed for too long, that it became reality: machines are factual, machines are non-emotional, machines are empirical, machines are... simply better. At this point, even journalism was invaded by AI. People no longer knew if the journalist they were attentively watching behind the screen was human or totally fictional. It became impossible to even differentiate whether those were someone’s prompt-deepfaked news presented as facts, or simply weaponized AI recreating reality as they pleased. They could easily show the masses exactly what they want them to see and believe. At this point, it started to feel as if humans had totally lost their free will. They could no longer think for themselves or criticize anything.

Human brains started to feel like some kind of algorithm absolutely controlled by AI from early childhood. They just started to feel superior, while humans were chickens in a coop. But the real problem is that nobody was actively trying to

The company’s latest project was extremely sensitive. It was a whole new level. This time, they were working on a top-secret project for the government. They were told it was a matter of national security, so different representatives were involved, including internal affairs, military, weapons experts, secret agents,etc. It was definitively serious since anyone part of this project had to stay confined and isolated from any outside communication devices, inside a governmental facility to ensure absolute secrecy. They had everything they needed to last fr weeks; they could only leave with the project perfectly done.

You must be wondering by now what kind of project requires this many security protocols. Well, let me tell you all about it. The project is called ‘PeaceM’; it aims to build an advanced AI system to help governments build trained soldiers with more mental and physical aptitude to do their jobs. It removes ‘bad’ qualities from human brains and promotes fast decision-making, resource allocation, and threat detection. It even creates an elaborate smart defense network that coordinates a country’s response system, including nuclear arsenals. It is a huge project that can create an indefensible security system for whoever owns it. It seems like the most desired program any country could want.

Since we first started, days passed, then weeks, months, which turned into over a year. However, we were finally ready, and we created that invincible defense system. The only remaining step was to present it to the world. Since I was the head of the IT team, I was picked to hold a conference and present all the wonders of our new creation. Everyone was excited. So the night before the event, I was taking a final look at the system; it looked flawless, except for one tiny detail. It seemed to actually be a little too perfect and was developing way faster than anyone expected. I got chills; I felt scared and thrilled at once. Soon enough, I noticed the worst thing possible. It seemed as if our system was developing intentions and ways on its own. With that much power, this could be the end of us, humans. I alerted all my superiors and partners. We needed to pull off the plug immediately before we ruined this world even more. However, nobody seemed to listen. To thank me for all my hard work and weeks of sleepless nights, they took me off the project, gave me some cash, and told me to disappear forever and never speak a word about this, or ELSE…

It was time they launched the project, so I could not miss it despite all their threats. The world needed to know the truth, and I was going to make sure of it.

I barged in just as everyone had been waiting for the big reveal; I screamed my lungs out trying to explain. My last words were, ‘It is time to pull the plug before it is too late! It has to be shut down immediately! You must believe me !’

Ever since that day, I never saw the sunlight, but deep down, in my heart, I hoped someone would report the truth... journalists... or whatever was left of them, but I guess I will never know.

The end