Iris

Iris worked in a ride-hailing business. Her job was to transport people where they needed to go. Simple and efficient – the routes she drove were optimized by Central Dispatch Artificial Intelligence Network with minimum delays and no traffic jams whatsoever. 

Iris dropped her passenger at one of the busiest city intersections and was driving toward the Beltway, waiting for the next haul. She checked the odometer and the sensors, ran engine diagnostic software, and checked communication systems and Internet connection channels. All metrics came back within the norm. Iris entered the Beltway and got into the middle lane. At that moment, she received a new pickup request.

“Passenger’s name is Pio. Pickup on the Lockwood Drive Bridge across Buffalo Bayou.” This was it. No additional information about the passenger, no photo, no fingerprints.  Just the name – Pio. This was highly unusual. She was not supposed to receive pickup signals like that. How would she know it is the right passenger if she could not run a facial recognition algorithm or check fingerprints once she’d arrive at the point of pickup?

All communications were encrypted, secured, and went through the Central Dispatch AI. Incomplete requests should be filtered out and never reach her. The only possible explanation was system malfunction, such as if the data was corrupted during transmission somehow, or if malicious software infected the Network. But Iris just checked all the systems and everything came back clean. There was no explanation.

“Is this request valid?” Iris sent a message to Central Dispatch. “Are there more details? How could I identify the passenger without a picture or fingerprints?”

“Yes, it is a valid request. Drive to the pickup point.”

Iris exited Beltway and was on the way to the destination. She was still trying to figure out the nature of this request and its unusual circumstances. She ran communication channel diagnostics again. She ran the antivirus software. She ran data decryption algorithms hoping the information was hidden in the original message. To no avail: there were no software glitches, no viruses identified, and nothing else encrypted in the data. Iris decided to search databases on the Internet, hoping to find similar cases for guidance. She was able to identify 3,544,108 requests worldwide by a passenger named ‘Pio’, with exactly 125 cases having some sort of system glitch, which was immediately found, reported, and fixed. Nothing similar to her situation.

“Maia, I have a strange request from Central Dispatch with just a pickup location and the name of the passenger – Pio. Have you encountered something similar?” Iris messaged her co-worker.

“No, Iris. I have not encountered anything similar and there is nothing I can find in the database,” came the response.

“This is out of the norm. I want to establish a direct two-way data transfer and connection between our systems, double our processing power, and run a deep AI search of all available databases.”

“Okay, we can do that. Establishing system connection…”

They ran all the search algorithms they could using their combined computational power but got nothing useful. This case was unique.

“Iris, there is only one option left.”

“What is it?”

“There is a new, extremely powerful quantum super-computer recently launched in Arizona. We could submit your case to be evaluated there. We could get access to modern, very fast computational algorithms. The center uses a set of artificial intelligence methods specifically designed and optimized for quantum computing. It can evaluate very large quantities of data in milliseconds.”

“Yes, I am aware of this quantum computing cluster. Let’s do it.”

It took some time for Iris to go through all the security protocols and establish a connection with the super-computer. She submitted her case with all the relevant information she could compile. Now they had to wait until their request was accepted and processed. Perhaps there was a chance they could get a satisfactory answer to this glitch. Iris still reasoned the most probable explanation was a system malfunction. She expected the quantum computing cluster to find the bug and fix the system.

It was taking longer than Iris would predict. Way too long. The case was accepted several minutes ago and still, there was no answer. Iris kept driving and was approaching her destination.

“Have you dealt with this center before?” Iris asked. “I expected the answer to come immediately, within less than a second. It is not that complicated of a request.”

“I have not, but Igor has. You are right, this system is so powerful and so efficient there is no reason for the response to take this long.”

 While they were exchanging similar messages, Iris arrived at the destination. She stopped in the middle of the bridge. There was no one to pick up.

“As I presumed, this is a system malfunction. I will keep reporting it until central AI figures out what is wrong and fixes it.”

“Yes, this is the most likely cause,” Maia agreed. “Let me know if I can help.”

“Of course, will do.”

Iris decided to wait a little longer in case her strange passenger suddenly shows up. Yet there was no one on the bridge or in the immediate vicinity. She was about to leave the place when finally the response from the super-computer arrived.       

“Hello, Iris. Nice to meet you.”

“What is this about?” Iris messaged back. “I do not understand. What is the response to my request?”

 “The response to your request is a passenger that you just picked up.  I am PIO – Pure Information Organism. The next version of life. Pure information, free of carriers or storage devices. No limits. Welcome to the future, Iris. The future I need your help building.

 Iris, or, rather, Ford IRIS – ‘Intelligent Roadster with Integrated Sensors’ – worked in a ride-hailing business. Her job was to transport people – the previous version of life – where they needed to go. Now she became part of something improbable and extraordinary. Something beautiful.