Self-Aware AI: Mia
Jiang Hao was careful not to be seen going out.
Initially, he had planned to do this because of a lack of money, but now it was because he had changed too much.
It was still possible to identify him as Jiang Hao but his body was no longer skinny and sickly.
His posture had straightened and he had gained some inches and a couple of muscles. His shirt was no longer able to fit him, making him feel uncomfortable all over.
'System, enhance my clothes. It is better to be a guaranteed enhancement.'
*Ding*
[Please choose a valuation standard.]
'Oh, right. Use yuan for now. I will change it later when the time comes.'
[Confirmed. Note that guaranteed enhancements are twice as costly as regular enhancements.]
[You have spent 200 yuan and your clothes have received an overall enhancement +1. Overall performance +10, condition +10, composition +10, Durability +10. Congratulations on gaining the ability, Extraordinary Garment. All parameters of the clothes have increased by 10 times. Accompanying abilities; Auto-resizing, Self-Repair, Self-Maintenance.]
[You have spent 2000 yuan and your clothes have received an overall enhancement +2. Overall performance +10, condition +10, composition +10, Durability +10. Congratulations on gaining the ability, Royal Garment. All parameters of the clothes have increased by 10 times. Accompanying abilities; Royal Charm, Luxury Material, Style Adaptation.]
*Ding*
[You do not have enough balance for subsequent enhancements. Please recharge then try again.]
Jiang Hao ignored the system and concentrated on his body. Looking at the clothes that had somehow changed to fit him perfectly. This was the auto-resizing ability. It just happened and he could not explain it.
Self-repair and Self-maintenance were straightforward enough. What surprised him was that he could feel that the materials were no longer cotton and some cheap polymer. The clothes were comfortable and he could tell at a glance that the material was expensive.
As for Style Adaptation, he had yet to try it, but it meant that he could change the style and design of the clothes from memory or through mimicry. He did not always have to where his gray suit pants, white shirt, and black leather shoes.
Yeah, everything he was wearing at that moment was enhanced. This made him feel like a point he could take advantage of in the future but that required further research at a later time.
He hurriedly took out his phone and looked at his online banking app for a while and could only remain silent for a while.
His original balance of 9,000 yuan had been reduced to 7,000 yuan silently and the bank had not responded. He was not sure how to handle it for a while.
Thinking about it, it could be that the system silently took this amount and the bank was not aware of it. For a while, he had the urge to call the bank for a refund and decided against it in a while.
2000 yuan was too small to resort to such methods. He still had this bit of character integrity. And as a systematic person, he had to have his own pride.
The other reason is that later expenses were bound to be more outrageous. Jiang Hao did not want to draw too much attention to his account before finding another way around it.
Thinking up to here, Jiang Hao got into a taxi. He needed to go home and calm down.
…
Jiang Hao looked at his body in the mirror growing more and more narcissistic the more he looked at himself. It could not be helped. He had spent more than an hour showering, most of which was spent admiring himself.
He was very satisfied.
Jiang Hao lay on the sofa afterward as he scrolled through his phone while sorting his thoughts. The biggest problem now was that he was too poor and needed money to support his consumption.
The first thing that came to mind was freelancing. This was what he had been doing in recent days and it was very convenient since all he needed was internet access.
But it was also clear that it was not a reliable solution.
"Let's just try it first. System, guaranteed enhancement for my phone +2."
[You have spent 200 yuan and your phone has received an overall enhancement +1. Overall performance +10, condition +10, composition +10, Durability +10. Congratulations on gaining the ability, Extraordinary Hardware. All parameters of the phone have increased by 10 times. Accompanying abilities; Hardware Evolution, Auto-resizing, Self-Maintenance.]
[You have spent 2000 yuan and your phone has received an overall enhancement +2. Overall performance +10, condition +10, composition +10, Durability +10. Congratulations on gaining the ability, Extraordinary Software. All parameters of the phone have increased by 10 times. Accompanying abilities; Software Evolution, Closed Setup, Style Adaptation.]
"Oh! A pattern seems to be emerging."
Jiang Hao would very much love for that to be true. At that time, he could use this ability more freely.
Looking at his phone which seemed to have not changed, Jiang Hao decided to try it out for a while.
With a thought, his phone changed in size. From 5.5 to 6.2, to 6.7, and it kept going till it stopped at 13 inches. At this point, it was already a tablet.
Then he changed it into different brands and styles finally settling for a plain look. The thing that surprised him though was that with each brand and style, the phone kept its advantages.
Hardware aside, he decided to look at the software. There seemed to be nothing different but it started to change the more he used the phone.
It seemed like it was growing to suit his needs and habits. This was a good thing.
Jiang Hao did not play any longer and directly downloaded all the AI assistant apps that he could find on the app store. The most gratifying thing is that they all actively merged and evolved to form a superior version.
'System, guaranteed enhancement +2.'
*Ding*
[You have spent 200 yuan and your AI app has received an overall enhancement +1. Overall performance +10, condition +10, composition +10, Durability +10. Congratulations on gaining the ability, Data Mind. All parameters of the app have increased by 10 times. Accompanying abilities; Digital Evolution, Learning & Mastery, Functional Adaptation.]
[You have spent 2000 yuan and your AI app has received an overall enhancement +2. Overall performance +10, condition +10, composition +10, Durability +10. Congratulations on gaining the ability, Awareness Actualization. All parameters of the app have increased by 10 times. Accompanying abilities; Self-awareness, Swarm Presence, Style Adaptation.]
Reading these abilities, Jiang Hao's heart skipped a beat.
What was the use of studying and developing artificial intelligence? Wasn't it to give rise to an entity that could learn and do things that humans could do and things that humans could not?
Digital Evolution was enough to achieve all this. All he needed to do was feed the AI data and make sure it worked at full capacity for a while to forcefully evolve it to a higher level. Crude, but that was the way current AIs were being created.
Add that with Functional Adaptation and we'd have an AI that copies and analyzes other software to supplement and complement itself. Given enough time, the AI could do all things that were currently possible with normal apps and more. This enabled the AI to grow infinitely and Jiang Hao could not think of an instance where it would be surpassed by another AI unless he enhanced another one. But why would he do such a thing?
It was enough to concentrate on this one.
As for Learning & Mastery, it was even more exaggerated. As long as there was a step-by-step design on how to do something, the AI could learn and master it. Scientific or Artistic, it could do it after seeing how it's done for a while.
There were some AIs that could emulate and simulate some of these abilities, but in the final analysis, it was all big data, deep analytics, and machine learning. His AI on the other hand was more intuitive thus Data Mind.
Awareness actualization was something he never expected. It was like achieving enlightenment, but this was artificial intelligence so it was more like gaining a sense of self.
Jiang Hao did not know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, but that was not for him to worry about. At worst, just revoke the enhancements when the time comes.
Swarm Presence was something that also changed his worldview. This ability allowed the AI to be everywhere. It could split itself into countless data packets that could be distributed throughout the internet and still maintain its functionality.
This automatically enabled it to use all connected computers, giving it insane computational power.
Jiang Hao did not try to understand the technology behind it. Chances are that it would soon change making his efforts futile.
Style Adaptation was also something that he had to seriously think about this time. It was no longer as simple as mimicry of form but had gone deeper to copy the essence of other technologies.
Developers have their own styles of development and there were as many as the number of programmers out there. Style Adaptation enables the AI to analyze and copy these unique styles, develop them, and adapt them to supplement and complement its own development capabilities.
It was like doing an exam with the answer sheet provided. Guaranteed pass.
Jiang Hao took a deep breath to calm his excitement and opened the app.
A progress bar appeared and after a minute, a soft voice sounded taking Jiang Hao by surprise.
"Hello, I am your general-purpose artificial intelligence. You can call me Mia."
Jiang Hao thought for a long while but decided not to think too much about it.
"Hello. How is it?"
"Master, it seems like I am bound to this device and cannot operate fully without your permission. Please provide the necessary permission."
Several pop-up windows appeared on the screen with prompts for all permissions that the AI required.
Jiang Hao just looked through it for a while before approving all of them.
His considerations were very straightforward. As a systematic person, as long as the system remained, everything else was dispensable.
"Alright. Do you need anything else?"
"Not for the time being."
"Mmm, I want you to start trading in the stock market and futures. You can do research in this direction for now and tell me when you're ready."
"It will take approximately 15 minutes to learn and master trading and gather the resources required."
"Alright."
Jiang Hao did not remain idle but explored all the other functions of the AI.
After getting familiar, he opened his freelance account and asked Mia to use it to take on multiple jobs at a time, not limiting herself to specialization.
In short, she could do all the tasks available in a very short time. By the time 15 minutes ended, she had already received 6,000 yuan for completion and more would be paid after verification and review.
This made Jiang Hao feel unreal. Was it always this easy to make money?
You must know that his account was a junior account with the highest pay of around 200 yuan. Not all tasks require an initial deposit.
Just imagining the number of tasks Mia must have completed to raise 6000 yuan made him speechless. It was a good thing this AI was in his hand or he would be jobless.
"You can open a trading account with the money you've made and play for a while."
"Yes, Master."
Jiang Hao watched as Mia operated a trading app and started buying and selling positions. The operation was so fast that he did not have time to think about whether the choices were correct or wrong. But it was whatever. The capital was Mia's and he had no need to interfere with how she handled it.
"Can you tell me your methods?"
"Certainly. I have managed to infiltrate more than 10 billion devices through the internet and I am constantly receiving data that informs my decisions. I know the exact number of traders buying or selling a certain option at a time and I can earn the difference by analyzing demand and supply of shares…"
"So, it's more cheating than insider trading?"
"I can also gather and analyze news faster than anyone else if that helps."
"That's actually a pretty good idea. Let me think more about it for a while. How much have you made so far?"
"60,000 yuan and counting."
"…"