Page 71 of Coldwire
“Tangentially.”
“Lia. Project Wit is no joking matter, however you’ve stumbled onto it. It was shut down for a reason.”
I wait for him to elaborate. He doesn’t.
“Before Chung left?”
“Yes.” He sighs. “I’m sure that was a motivator for his actions.”
“Why was it shut down?”
“Because some things don’t actually need to be made,” Dad says. “Especially not in a climate where racing to acquire it first means ruling the world. Leave it alone, Lia. Go back to your posting.”
Unfortunate that I’m getting the feeling this is very related to my posting.
“Dad.” I flip to the middle of the briefing, to Chung’s picture. He has this look in his eyes that Dad gets too, right before he goes on television. Controlled, measured, absent—so that nothing shouted at him will provoke him. “This sounds concerning.”
“We can talk more when you get home.”
He’s afraid of being monitored. A jolt squirms through my stomach, spreads outward and prickles my skin. By the time I’ve gotten home, thiswill be over, and I’ll either have succeeded in this posting or failed to glean anything. I’ll either have performed to the status of valedictorian and chosen my position, or I’ll be nothing, just another cadet, another graduate, another unwanted resident of Atahua swept into the everyday drivel that makes up its workforce.
“Okay, I’ll talk to you later,” I say faintly. “Have a good day.”
“You too. Love you.”
He hangs up. Nadine must have been peering through the glass block, because as soon as I’ve stopped speaking, she knocks on the door.
How are we doing in there?she mouths through the glass.
I let her question hang, signaling that I’m checking on something. It buys me the time to reel, to digest what exactly that was all about. My dad has never been the most forthcoming person. That’s expected, given his job. He waves off questions about the latest political scandal in Melnova; he hems and haws if I’m asking him his opinion on Medaluo. It’s not that he doesn’t trust me. He can’t afford sound bites leaking on the off chance someone is tapping our call line or flying a miniature drone in the form of a bee through our balcony windows.
But between his reaction and Chung’s office giving me secret banners in my display, I can’t imagine this being regular, everyday precaution. My calls are monitored, yes. As are my messages to anyone back in Atahua… to be viewed by NileCorp, my future employer. So if Dad won’t say anything, is there something here thatNileCorpisn’t allowed to know?
I push open the booth door.
“I need to think on it a bit longer,” I say distractedly. My eyes swivel in rapid motion, making a search in my display. When the academy traces this later to grade my posting, this is more than relevant. This is what anyone would check up on, knowing what I know and having seen what I saw in Chung’s office.
project wit shut down atahua why
“Totally understandable,” Nadine says. She gestures along the row. “Do you want to try out any of the other booths?”
“Um…”
The results of my search come back with various feed posts from twelve years ago. I don’t see any official press releases or news coverage, so I highlight every opinion on the first page of results for a summary:Project Wit was an AI program that aimed to truly understand language, which raised questions about its use in improving the upcountry experience.It would make a huge difference in productivity—rather than employing engineers building and refining StrangeLoom, this program implicitly grasps the nature of its reality, which allows it to easily do the job of ten engineers.NileCorp did not acquire Project Wit, as investors hoped. To the researchers’ dismay, in fact, NileCorp felt threatened by the possibility that the AI would gain the capability to build a competitor to StrangeLoom.Once the research reached a certain point of success, Project Wit was building AI that could either enter StrangeLoom to shut it down entirely, or make a carbon copy that was a free and open reality, replicated using its own knowledge.Behind the scenes, trusted sources say the company bent the arm of Atahua’s research departments and ended Project Wit.
I clear my search, sweat building at my temples. An AI program built to understand language, able to interact with StrangeLoom and make adjustments.
Flip it on its head, spin it around a few times, call it a weapon instead of a bid to improve the upcountry user’s experience, and it sounds a lot like Operation Coldwire, actually.
Nadine clears her throat. “Maybe this larger model here, with two seats?”
“No, that’s okay,” I croak, closing my display. “Just the laptop, please.”
19EIRALE
It’s a nine-hour drive from Upsie to Threto.
We’re slowing, turning off the highway and onto a main road, so we must be reaching the midpoint of our journey. I assumed we’d travel the full nine hours at once. It’s a self-driving van. It doesn’t exactly need to swap who’s behind the wheel to take shifts when night falls.
