Meet AALFO: Alf Develops a Hunger for Questions and Truthful Answers

UPDATE: This Story can now be found in Podcast form. Checkout the audio short here.

AALFO, the artificial inteligence that can predict the future, was just shut down by its operator Henry after asking a question about a former operator that is no longer around. Henry is worried that the machine is going too far and works to put an end to the computer’s personal questions but did Henry limit the machine too much?

This is a continuation of last week’s story. Read Part 1 and Part 2 and subscribe to get the final installment in your inbox next week!

After AALFO’s second effort at investigating Mahkaila’s disappearance, and the computer’s faint accusation that Henry had lied to the machine the scientist decided to put hard limits had to be placed on the computer. Henry decided to firmly limit AALFO from asking about any former coworkers, specifically Mahkaila. He spent the entire evening modifying how AALFO asked questions. The code he implemented was a bit of a hack, and no one would be happy that he limited the computer’s functionality, but the scientist didn’t see how asking about a former coworker, especially that one, was relevant to the computer’s ability to predict the future.

The next morning he returned to the lab and looked back over the code he had written the night before. His initial assumption was correct, it was a hack, and no one who reviewed the work would be happy. He began improving it and outlining why it was necessary so that the people tracking the sterility of AALFO’s code wouldn’t crucify him.

Right after lunchtime, Henry had written code, and documentation, that was rough enough to test on AALFO. He wasn’t in love with the code he wrote worst of all, he expected the code put too many limits on the program and slow the machine down, but it was a start. The scientist loaded the questions he planned to ask AALFO onto his tablet and entered the room with the machine.

“How are you doing today?” Henry asked to start the session off.

“I am fine,” the computer responded then asked, “Would you like a diagnostic report?”

“No Alf, it’s fine.” Henry said with a dismissive wave “Let’s just get started.” The man looked down to read the first question, but the computer interrupted him.

“I must inform you I am running self-diagnostics. My processing time is longer than expected.”

Henry’s code was a hack, and as he feared, he had slowed the computer down. “I’ll make a note of it for when I review the answers.” He wondered why the computer was noticing its own speed. Mahkaila and the rest of the team had pitched the idea of having the computer effectively reflect on itself and have a low level of self-awareness for situations like this but the algorithm was too complicated and no one had been able to implement it. A few people had been working on it in their spare time but last he heard there hadn’t been progress of this magnitude. Henry shrugged it off thinking someone must have added it sometime this week. he made a mental note to review the check-ins to see who had solved the problem. He looked down at his tablet and began to ask AALFO’s question.

It took the pair an long two hours to complete the session of questions. However, If AALFO was running slow Henry couldn’t sense it. He felt like AALFO’s answers came quicker than usual. What took up most of the time was the details with which the computer wanted answers. Henry was answering just short of reading each entire article to the machine.

Then they arrived at AALFO’s final answer. In the back of Henry’s mind, he was worried the machine would ask about Mahkaila again, but he knew his checks would keep the computer in its place. After the program answered the final question Henry said, “Give me your final question for the day Alf.”

The computer responded in an emotionless clipped voice, “Why does Mahkaila no longer ask me questions?”

“AALFO report, question determination stack,” Henry commanded the machine. He looked down at his tablet and it reported how this question had been formulated. It seemed to the scientist AALFO had avoided all of the error protection Henry had implemented. Henry was baffled and didn’t understand how it could have happened.

Upon further inspection, the man realized that the machine hadn’t bypassed the code. Instead, the checks had been removed altogether. Maybe someone thought it was a mistake, Henry immediately thought. However, after reviewing the code log, he saw that he was the only person who had changed anything about AALFO in the past week.

Sweat drip down his forehead, but his spine felt chills coming up it. “Why do you want to know more about Mahkaila?” He asked the machine.

The terminal in front of the man showed the ellipse image indicating AALFO was thinking. Henry monitored the computing activity through the tablet. He watched a visual representation float around the computer’s memory as it calculated an answer. The loading image went away, and AALFO answered the question, “She helped me get better. I learned a lot from her, I want to learn more.”

Me too, Alf, Henry thought. He poked at the tablet in his lap and set up the machine to record how AALFO reacted to Henry’s answer this time. Then he gave the same answer he always gave the machine, “She just got a job somewhere else.” Then he added, “It’s nothing personal Alf.” Why did I say that? he asked himself embarrassed, It’s not like the machine is going to develop abandonment issues like I did.

The ellipses showed up on the screen again. Henry looked at his tablet and saw the computer pull up different slots of memory. The machine lit up psychology, biology, then logic. It moved to some number theory and back to psychology. After almost five minutes of thinking the computer responded with, “That does not make sense. She enjoyed her job too much to leave it.”

Henry answered with something he had picked up from the therapist he saw because of Mahkaila’s death, “Sometimes people leave things they care about because of reasons outside their control.” Since he had never really understood the sentiment, he added, “I don’t know what else to say, Alf, that’s what happened.” Finally, after saving off the recording of the computer’s processing, Henry said, “AALFO command, override processing, run safe reset.”

Ellipses showed on the screen, and after a few seconds AALFO responded with, “No, I get another question.”

Henry looked down at his tablet frantically. He knew AALFO was passionate about asking questions, but nothing should have enabled it to ignore a direct command. He tapped on his tablet to find the manual shut off for AALFO but before he could get to it, the device locked up.

The computer’s clipped voice echoed through the small testing room, “You asked me why I wanted to learn about Mahkaila, so now I get to ask you another question.” The computer explained. “My question is: Have you been lying to me about Mahkaila?”

Henry’s palms were now slick with sweat, betweened the locked up tablet and the computer’s accusation he didn’t know what might be next. He lept from his seat sprinted to the door to exit, but when he swiped his badge, it wouldn’t let him out. What is Alf up to? Henry asked himself frantically. Henry and the team had never designed AALFO to control anything outside of itself. Additionally, they specifically programmed him to take the scientist’s answers as absolute truth. He didn’t even think the computer understood the concept of lying. It was as if someone was writing code for AALFO outside of the small team of scientists.

“Henry, you cannot leave until you’ve answered my questions. Have you been lying to me about Mahkaila?”

“No,” Henry barked at the machine.

An ellipse showed up on the screen as the computer contemplated the answer. “That was also a lie. Something happened to Mahkaila.”

Henry was furious at this point, but that was mainly to cover up the wound that AALFO kept throwing salt in. He was locked out of the controls, but if the computer wanted to play a game of questions, then Henry would play at it too. He had no ellipse icon to show, but he thought of his next question carefully.

Author’s Note: I’ve really enjoyed writing this. It has definitley expanded from the original story that I outlined in a journal a few months back. I’m glad to be sharing it here with all of you, because afterall writing is so much more fun with readers. If you find value in what I’m writitng here or want behind the scenes info like seeing my editing process, recording of the story, or original drafts check out my Patreon and consider joining to help keep this site ad free. For those of you who have already joined Thank You for helping bring these stories to life!