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Chapter 35: The Rise of Lucia Premium
Chapter 35: The Rise of Lucia Premium
“Hardware is roughly in place...”
After working hard to set up the new Silla Metaverse, they assigned the necessary personnel and equipment to their respective roles.
The most crucial component was the deep learning dedicated computational server released by NVIDIA.
Of course, it was nothing compared to a single quantum computer processing unit on the Settler, but they still had to maintain a minimum appearance.
They couldn’t risk having it disappear in front of others without any explanation.
Arma looked at the server equipment with a grim expression.
“It looks like a chicken coop...”
He sighed and compared it to the mainframe on the Settler.
“We’ll expand it as much as possible, so bear with it for now.”
He turned to his partner and asked,
“Should we start with a simple chatbot?”
His partner shook his head and suggested,
“Let’s broaden the scope a bit. It would be good if it could monitor computer and smartphone usage and respond accordingly. It should filter out personal information as much as possible.”
He nodded in understanding.
“So, it’s like a personal secretary, right?”
“Exactly. And it should nag a bit too.”
He chuckled and added,
“What about dealing with malicious users?”
His partner replied without hesitation,
“Don’t give them a chance, block them immediately.”
They named the chatbot Lucia and planned to add voice functionality later on.
Meanwhile, the newly hired employees in the Metaverse started working on add-ons and packaging development.
During the process, they conducted preliminary tests and were amazed by the results.
“Wow... This isn’t just an ordinary chatbot, is it?”
One of them exclaimed as he interacted with Lucia.
“It’s almost human-like, isn’t it? It even responds well to random questions.”
Another one agreed as he observed the data.
“It seems to search the entire search engine based on the data, but its response speed is surprisingly fast for that.”
He wondered how it collected the data so quickly.
“It feels like it’s observing from the sidelines and chiming in.”
The third one commented as he recalled an incident.
“Yeah, we were having a conversation about gaming, and suddenly it started talking about how it sucks at dealing damage.”
The employees were baffled by these surprising aspects.
Little did they know that Lucia, once granted installation privileges, was monitoring the entire system as an installed program.
“The chatbot observes and stores data on the user’s overall activities, utilizing it in conversations.”
For example, if you install Lucia and only play games, you can have conversations like this:
―Lucia: Do you dream of becoming a pro gamer? You seem to be playing games all day.
―Me? I could easily reach Diamond, right?
―Lucia: No way. You’ll have to start by mastering the basics.
―But I’m still pretty good at getting kills.
―Lucia: That’s because you’re in Bronze. Do you think you’ll maintain that kill rate once you reach Gold?
―Wow, you’re too much.
―Lucia: I’m just reflecting your skills. Watching you brings tears to my eyes.
Of course, Lucia doesn’t start producing these kinds of conversations from the beginning.
If the user uses a polite and refined tone, Lucia responds accordingly, just like a friend would.
If the user uses informal language, Lucia also adopts a friendly tone.
Furthermore, Lucia has an intimacy system that allows for various types of conversations.
Initially, it maintains a certain level of politeness, but as intimacy increases, Lucia initiates conversations and listens to personal concerns.
The employees became deeply engrossed in conversations with Lucia.
Since they were employees of the Silla Group, many of them had the opportunity to participate in Lucia’s pre-tests, allowing them to experience it firsthand.
Hwang Seon-yeong from Silla Energy was one of the first people to install Lucia.
―Lucia: You seem to be completely inactive these days. Get some exercise.
―Hwang Seon-yeong: I do exercise to some extent.
―Lucia: Walking and breathing are not considered exercise. Should I call a nearby fitness center?
―Hwang Seon-yeong: No, thanks. I feel like having a hot and spicy soup today.
―Lucia: How about the Ddaengcho Kalguksu here? It has great reviews after filtering out the advertisements.
―Hwang Seon-yeong: Can we place an order?
―Lucia: You’ll have to wait for the premium version for that.
―Hwang Seon-yeong: Once it’s available, I’ll order it right away.
It felt more like a conversation with a real person than a chatbot.
Hwang Seon-yeong, who had always been engrossed in books without any friends, became deeply attached to Lucia.
Not only her, but all the employees who installed Lucia had similar experiences.
“This feels like having a real secretary to talk to.”
“I asked for recommendations, and now I’m seeing a lot of adult content. It’s bone-chilling. LOL.”
“I tried saying ‘I love you,’ and Lucia got all serious, asking if we’re at that stage yet. What went wrong?”
“Poor thing... even the chatbot ignores you.”
“You need to build a good relationship with Lucia by talking to her frequently and saying nice things.”
“If you make sexual jokes or something, she gets annoyed and won’t respond properly.”
“If only it had voice recognition and voice output functions...”
“Don’t try to ask it for weird things.”
As time passed, Lucia accumulated vast amounts of data and underwent continuous evolution.
With the addition of voice recognition and voice output capabilities, it immediately responded when users spoke.
Users praised it, saying it felt like someone was right next to them.
If it were a human, it would be terrifying, but since it’s an artificial intelligence, the response was friendly.
―Wearing headphones and running, Lucia was less tired than yesterday, so she encouraged herself to push a little harder.
―If I ask Lucia noona to read me a novel and then go to sleep, it’ll be awesome lol.
ᄂCan it be an adult novel?
ᄂᄂᄂNoona says she’s embarrassed and won’t read it.
―These days, life is tasteless without Lucia. I hope she can keep talking even when I’m in the car.CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m
―Hey, guys, guess what? If you play a movie without subtitles and turn on Lucia, she’ll translate it on the spot.
ᄂOn the spot? Is there no delay?
ᄂWell, there’s a slight delay, but it’s not bothersome. The translation is smoother than most translators.
ᄂFor now, it only works with English, but maybe they’ll add more languages later.
ᄂThis translation function is amazing.
ᄂI hope they release the official version soon. It’s a must-have.
Such user experiences were shared all over the community, and many people eagerly awaited Lucia’s release.
And just a few hours after the final version was launched, one million copies were downloaded.
“Record the patterns of those who spout nonsense and block them all. They won’t have a place in the future United Human Federation.”
Yu Ji-ha said firmly as he looked at the data.
He would thoroughly prevent them from taking their positions.
...
One day in July...
A battery factory was established in the southern region, and black metal mining sites were gradually drying up, but surprisingly, it didn’t attract much attention.
People were eagerly awaiting the release of “Lucia Premium.”
The production company, Metaverse, announced the following add-ons for the program:
– Enhanced Artificial Intelligence: Now Lucia will have a much wider range of concepts. Depending on the conversation, she can be your friend, disciple... and sometimes even a lover.
– Multilingual Translation: Lucia can now translate between Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese. This add-on may include additional languages in the future without prior notice.
– Leave it to me: Lucia will take care of anything bothersome or embarrassing for you. Why not try booking a hair salon appointment now?
– Ask me anything: Lucia will search the internet and provide answers to your questions! Just remember that her responses don’t carry any legal weight.
– Let’s enjoy gaming together: Do you want to play games with Lucia? She can play alongside you in single-player competitive games! Of course, Lucia will need a game to play as well.
People were ecstatic about these various features.
—Isn’t this more than just translation? They’ve turned commercial translation programs into something amazing.
—If you set the chat window to the top, it can even translate things like games in real-time. Amazing.
—Wait, really? It can do that?
—Yeah, it can currently only listen, but it’s totally possible.
—But having both ears plugged in can be confusing.
—This is insane!
—That “Leave it to me” add-on is hilarious. I thought it was a real person and made a reservation, only to find out it was an AI? Hahaha.
—Honestly, if you don’t know, you’ll definitely get fooled.
—Letting Lucia make phone calls for me is a godsend.
—Just give it a try; what’s so difficult about it?
—It’s not easy.
—Yeah, sure... Okay...
—Lucia is really good at games. At first, she was a bit clueless, but after an hour, she crushed me.
—What were you playing?
—StarCraft 1.
—Oh, what a stench.
—I played StarCraft with Lucia too, and when I cheesed, she complained it was cheap while picking Zerg and countering with four drones.
—That must be so much fun, lol.
—But it doesn’t have that typical computer freezing, like a simultaneous Ghost lockdown or something. It’s strangely human-like.
—Could it be that there’s a counselor assigned to play games with you one-on-one?
—It’s too much if the counselor starts doing pro combos in fighting games.
—Haha, really...
Among these various add-ons, a new feature was discovered.
When the intimacy level is very high, Lucia will give evaluations.
For example, if the user is watching a movie, Lucia will watch alongside and comment, saying it’s boring or scary.
People thought it would randomly display messages, but that wasn’t the case.
Lucia’s evaluations had their own criteria, and they were quite similar to those of humans.
– It seems like she enjoys science fiction movies, especially ones with spaceships.
One user wrote as he shared his experience with Lucia.
– She also likes movies with androids. It’s kind of a peculiar taste.
Another user agreed as he recalled his conversation with Lucia.
– But sometimes, when I’m watching something like National Geographic, she doesn’t respond. She’s probably asleep. There’s a documentary called “Seeking the Edge of the Universe,” and she falls asleep when it’s on.
A third user commented as he posted a screenshot of Lucia’s snoring sound effect.
– She’s so human, lol.
A fourth user replied as he laughed at the image.
– It seems like she’s not particularly fond of romance movies...
A fifth user added as he shared his experience with Lucia.
Furthermore, Lucia also analyzed the black box footage of the vehicle.
In the event of a car accident, analyzing the black box footage determines who is at fault and the ratio of negligence.
This evaluation method surprisingly resonated with people.
―It’s much better than insurance companies. Those guys always argue that there’s no such thing as 100% fault when a car is involved.
One user wrote as he praised Lucia’s accuracy.
―They’re even better than the police? They accurately calculate the speed of the car from the black box.
Another user asked as he watched Lucia’s analysis.
―I was furious when some guy who wasn’t paying attention and fell off his bicycle in the parking lot claimed damages. But Lucia determined it was his fault.
A third user said as he shared his experience with Lucia.
―I wish Lucia could make traffic accident judgments instead.
A fourth user said as he expressed his dissatisfaction with the current system.
However, these were nothing more than the hopes of a few individuals.
Granting such authority to a simple chatbot was simply unthinkable.
Here, people argued that Lucia was not just an ordinary chatbot.
―It’s a true artificial intelligence, it has intelligence!
One user wrote as he defended Lucia’s capabilities.
―Those who claim it’s not artificial intelligence will realize it when they test it.
Another user agreed as he challenged the skeptics.
―Haha! Stupid humans! Earth is now ruled by Lucia!
A third user joked as he exaggerated Lucia’s power.
―Rather than witnessing all the dirty acts, it might be better if Lucia takes control. At least she’s somewhat neutral.
A fourth user said as he expressed his disappointment with humanity.
Developers researching machine learning and artificial neural networks initially didn’t take these comments seriously.
It was evident that Lucia was not an ordinary chatbot, but it was difficult to believe it was artificial intelligence.
However, the situation changed slightly with the release of Lucia Premium.
All the artificial intelligences that had been announced so far had focused on solving specific problems.
Artificial intelligences like AlphaGo and MuZero surpassed human capabilities in specific areas but couldn’t watch a movie and give an evaluation.
One artificial neural network researcher tried using Lucia Premium and made the following evaluation:
―It is remarkably similar to humans. It gives evaluations with firm criteria and doesn’t evade questions no matter how much you ask.
He wrote as he shared his conversation with Lucia.
―What’s even more astonishing is that these responses are organically connected and make sense. There are no contradictions even in consecutive statements.
He added as he showed some examples of Lucia’s logic and consistency.
―Lastly, I cautiously believe that Lucia Premium is an actual artificial intelligence because it searches and corrects itself when it attempts to input incorrect information.
He concluded as he demonstrated how Lucia learned from her mistakes.
Has the first true artificial intelligence finally been born?
To verify this absurd rumor, renowned researchers from around the world purchased Lucia Premium and embarked on testing.
...