I am AI by Ai Jiang

Author:Ai Jiang
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781959565109
Publisher: Shortwave Media

A tap on my arm shakes my attention. I check the time, and though it only feels like seconds, it’s already been hours. I can’t remember what it’s like not to look at lines of text and blocks of colour, all of it mixing together with the foggy background of Mao Tou Ying.

“What?” I shout.

Hermes flinches.

I snap my mouth shut, ducking my head in an instant, and mumble, “Sorry.”

Hermes sighs. “In case I don’t catch you when you leave,” she says with a slight frown.

It’s been four hours since I arrived. I nod without meeting her eyes. She’s made a habit of telling me when she’s going to work on her current paintings in the booth at the back. An unnecessary gesture, really, but I still appreciate it. I wonder how far along she is on her current piece and if it’s a commission for New Era, a wealthy collector, or might I see it back at the honeycomb?

I hope she is working on a piece for joy rather than a contracted one, but I also know she has little extra time for such flexible and artistic exploration, even as her commissioners insist she has creative freedom and expression. But Hermes knows their true intentions, and though she always complains about the conflicting interests, she signs contract after contract anyhow.

They don’t actually want us. They just want us to produce what they are looking for, exactly as they want it—not much different from AI, but they can slap our names on it to sway the AI protestors. “Look we’re hiring human artists and writers!” they’ll say. But nothing about what we make for them will seem human—only manipulated creations. We both know New Era only comes up with these campaigns to settle down protestors. Their contracts are only temporary, project-based contracts, Hermes insists.

I’m not sure who she is trying to convince that she still holds some sliver of power—me, New Era, or only a hopeful illusion she offers herself as justification for the soulless things she has been producing recently for the monopoly?

New Era and death might as well be one entity with the control they have over people’s lives and the futile hope that escape might ever be possible once anyone signs their life away. I would rather die under the bridge than to pass, seen as a simple pawn, in New Era’s easy path to dominance, even if they try to make it seem like the most glorious thing. Even if I’m being paid little for struggling Independents, anything is better than working for New Era, or even like Hermes, being under a “flexible contract.” The contracts, the promises, all mean nothing, really. They will toss her like they do everyone else as soon as she ceases to be useful, especially as she gains too much attention and support from the public, as soon as the protestors are rioting for the liberation of her true art. Maybe there is a chance for unrestricted, “true art” again, but I have trouble picturing such a world—at least when it comes to Emit.

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