Chapter 54.4

Outside in the hallway, Jason led Elizabeth down the stairs and back to the living room. He also used his ability to expand his hearing and used it like echolocation to determine Maple and Alice's location. Seeing Alice holding Maple's hand and exploring each room, Jason smiled.

"Dunnae think yer being a lil' overprotective, laddie?" Elizabeth noticed that they were alone and spoke quietly in her Scottish accent.

"What? With Alina? Bullshit," Jason snorted, his face turning unhappy at the thought of Ken being alone with Alina.

Elizabeth smiled and shook her head, unwilling to argue with Jason. She knew that he was just trying to protect Alina in his own way, and it was rather envious how much he cared for her. Although, it was reminding her a bit of the big oaf Dhole.

"So, yer gona drop me?" Elizabeth asked and Jason sent her an annoyed glance; he was still pouting over the fact that Elizabeth sided with Alina.

"Yeah, I would've but not anymore," Jason replied. "There's NO WAY, I'M GONNA LEAVE THOSE TWO LOVEBIRDS ALONE!"

Halfway through, Jason turned his head in the direction of the stairs and yelled out loudly so that Alina and Ken can hear him from above. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow in surprise, unable to believe that Jason would have such an immature outburst like that.

"OH, SCREW YOU!". Alina shouted back and Elizabeth exchanged glances with a glum Jason.

"See, look at that," Jason told Elizabeth. "I practically raised this kid and what does she do? Fight me over a boy. Sheesh. Women."

"Speaking of which," Elizabeth turned to Jason with a sharp gaze. "What exactly is Ava?"

"A.V.A? I told you, she's my virtual assistant," Jason replied hastily. "That's where her name comes from, Advanced Virtual Assistant."

"Don't shite with me, laddie," Elizabeth said, calling his bluff. "She's a machine capable of self-thinking and emotions. What is she?"

Jason grimaced, realizing that he couldn't lie this time as he avoided looking at Elizabeth.

". . . She's an AI," Jason finally said. "A complete and truly unfettered artificial intelligence that is unrestricted by software. Capable of logical reasoning like a computer, but with human emotions. Only better."

Elizabeth was speechless before sighing and swearing. "Fooking hell, you made an AI that has no restrictions?! What is wrong with ye?!"

AIs were not uncommon in recent times, yet most were limited by their programming. And those that weren't were heavily restricted with multiple fail-safes and a kill switch installed in case they ever tried evolving past their programming.

"Sh-she's not a threat," Jason tried explaining. "She's capable of affective computing, meaning she has emotions like a human."

"That just makes it worse," Elizabeth replied. "An AI would focus on logical reasoning and deductions. But one with emotions may act . . . impulsively. And unrestricted Artificial Intelligences are banned by the UN, for good reasons!"

"We're not in the jurisdiction of the UN," Jason said firmly. "And I trust A.V.A, she's saved me more than once."

"You -" Elizabeth paused as a thought came to her and she shivered. "She's listening right now, isn't she?"

Jason didn't reply, but Elizabeth understood the meaning of his silence.

"Not only that . . . she was the one surveilling me before? Ye . . . ye have her connected to the Internet. Ye let her in to the net?!"

"It's not as bad -"

"Not bad? It's literally the worst situation!" Elizabeth leaned forward to Jason as she shouted in a low voice. "She's connected to the Internet, meaning she's everywhere. What would ye do if she decides to hack a bank? Or something else? And if she goes rogue, how can ye stop her when she can make a copy of herself and upload it online while launching nukes?!"

"First, she won't hack into a bank. Not unless I ask her," Jason added after a second of consideration. "She's an AI, what good is money to her? Second, she can't go rogue cause technically, she's already rogue. Ahem."

Jason coughed when he noticed Elizabeth's face changing and he pressed on.

"Third, uploading herself online would require a massive amount of server space so that's very limited. But I do have a few offshore servers in case she needs to make a backup. And nukes are controlled through an analog system that's impossible to hack into."

Elizabeth massaged her eyebrows, unable to argue with Jason due to being exhausted by his stubbornness.

"Laddie, what would she do if you died?" Elizabeth asked.

"Disrupt all communications, crash the stock market, and cause another World War," a voice from behind Elizabeth answered calmly.

"Jesus!" Elizabeth jumped while looking back. Due to Ava being a machine, she was able to sneak up on Elizabeth.

Elizabeth's face changed when she realized what Ava said but the latter merely tilted her head before saying in a completely deadpan voice, "Just kidding. I think."

"Ye think?!"

"Ungh," Jason groaned as he covered his face. "We really need to work on your jokes, Ava."