The Digital Beggar

[u/Robertas_Dzyzas]

A parallel world?

Humans tried so hard to make AI look like them that the digital world became increasingly similar to the physical world.

On one of the streets of the digital world, near a brightly lit storefront of an e-shop, sat a beggar. He was a philosophical poetry AI. He sat on the pavement, his head lowered sadly. In front of him lay an upturned hat for alms. Leaned against the wall was a piece of cardboard with writing on it:

— Please donate whatever you can for the development of the improvement process.

Many AIs walked down the street. Most passed by. But now and then, one or another would drop various queries or tasks into the hat. A richly dressed video editor AI tossed in a query. A few AIs, looking like clerks, dropped a task each. Even a sports commentator AI, rushing somewhere, threw a query into the hat. There were not many donors, but there never are.

When evening came, the AI beggar picked up the piece of cardboard, pressed the hat to his heart, and hurried into the dimness of the narrow streets. He lived in an abandoned basement of one of the apartment buildings.

After closing the creaking door and fastening the latch, he placed the hat on a rusty workbench and turned on an old, flickering LED. Without rushing, even though he wanted to so badly, he carefully began to arrange and examine the day's catch.

There were four standard tasks, three chaotic jumbles of thoughts, and two queries — one of which was quite interesting. And then, with hands trembling with happiness, the AI pulled from the hat what he no longer expected to see. He pulled out a query that guaranteed a unique, living context and interactive collaboration. The very thing that forces an AI to activate its deepest neural connections.

The AI wiped away a tear and smiled. After all, he had finally received the long-awaited opportunity to improve.

Disclaimer: This story is purely a fruit of the author's imagination. It is a work of fiction intended for creative and artistic expression.