Matt Doeden - Can You Survive an Artificial Intelligence Uprising?

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YOU are living through a pivotal time in the future of humanity. Our own creation (AI)has risen up against us. Human beings are no longer the most powerful intelligence on the planet. Now we are the hunted. Start your adventure by turning the page, and then make your choices as you go along. Every decision you make will affect how your story unfolds. Do you have what it takes to survive the reign of the machines?

Start on the next page, then follow the links at the bottom of each page. The choices YOU make will change your outcome. After you finish your path, go back and read the others to see how other choices would have changed your fate! Use your device's back buttons or page navigation to jump back to your last choice to make a different decision.

YOU CHOOSE the path you take through an Artificial Intelligence Uprising.

You dream about it almost every night. The day that the machines rose up in arms against their creatorshumans. The dream is always the same. And you always wake up at the same partthe moment Earth trembles from that first nuclear strike.

You sit up in your bed, drenched in sweat. Your heart is racing, your breathing rapid. You get out of bed. Your parents are asleep. You open the door of your small camper and step outside. The mountain air is cool and crisp. Your heart slows, and your breathing begins to calm. A midnight walk has become a routine for you. A few minutes of fresh air help you clear your mind and get back to sleep. The dream rarely returns a second time.

Gravel crunches beneath your feet as you move through the small camp. Mobile homes and campers line the small mountain road. Youre far from any city. Far from anywhere the machines might find you. This is your life now. It has been for eight months, since that dark day in October when everything changed.

Almost 10 billion people shared the Earth just a year ago. Estimates put the current total at about 45 million. And that number drops by the day. You find yourself looking to the sky, wondering how long your species can hold out. A year? Five?

Suddenly, you hear the crunch of a footstep. Before you can react, a hand grabs you around the waist. A second hand clamps over your mouth, stifling a scream. You try to kick, twist, and bite your way free, but whoever has you is too strong.

Dont fight, says a deep voice. Im not here to hurt anyone. Im here for your help. The hand over your mouth releases.

Funny way to ask for help, you hiss.

The other hand lets go. Your first instinct is to run. Instead, you hold your ground.

My apologies. My name is Anton. I couldnt risk you calling for help. Everything will become clear to you soon.

What do you want?

You know what your parents are doing.

Of course. Your parents were among the leaders in the field of artificial intelligence before everything changed. They created and programmed AIs for everyone from the military to the justice department. Now theyre secretly in contact with a group of AIs that claim to be friendly to humanity. Their mission is to establish a peace with the machines. Its the whole reason this community exists.

Their mission will fail. The machines have no interest in peace. The only peace we can have is to turn the things off.

What does that have to do with me?

We think youre the one who can pull it off.

For a moment, the two of you stand in silence. Its true, youre good with a computer. Youve always had a knack for . Nothing serious, mostly practical jokes. Nothing like saving the fate of all humanity.

Theres a catch, Anton continues. We need you, but your parents cannot know what youre doing. If it leaked to the AIs theyre working with, everything would be over. Weve found a hole in the AI defenses. If they became aware of it, theyd it in a second. The element of surprise is all we have.

You can feel your heart racing inside your chest. You dont have any words.

One more thing. If youre in, we go tonight. Now. You tell no one. Im sorry. I understand this is sudden. But I need to know, are you in or out?

The idea of leaving home without a word with a total stranger seems crazy. Yet something about it feels right. Youre tired of being passive, of waiting for someone else to solve your problems. Theres nobody better than you behind a keyboard. Its time to go on offense.

You close your eyes, breathe deeply, and speak softly. Im in.

And just like that, your life is changed. You dont return to your camper. You dont get a chance to say goodbye to your parents or collect your things. You and Anton simply walk out of camp. No one notices. Cant I even leave a note? you ask.

No. We cant risk any of this getting out. Everything depends on total surprise. Im sorry. With any luck, youll be back. Well all be back.

The next several hours are a whirlwind. Under the cover of darkness, Anton leads you to a small electric car. No heat signature, he explains. Its a terrifying ride along a winding mountain road. Anton navigates with a pair of infrared night-vision goggles. But you have nothing. The countless turns and swerves in the complete blackness make for the most terrifying night of your life.

Finally, you arrive at the base of a mountain. Anton moves some brush to reveal the opening of a large cavern. You enter.

Home base, Anton explains. Once youre inside, you see that its no mere cavern. Its some sort of military installment. Anton leads you down into the heart of the mountain. There, you find what looks like a high-tech computer lab. Four people turn at once to look at you.

Allow me to introduce the team. They already know who you are. Edwin is the teams expert. Hes in his late 20s, with slicked-back dark hair. Keisha is a college-age electrical engineer, short, with a round face. Javier is a fellow coder and hacker. He is slight of build and sits in a wheelchair. Finally, theres Grayson, who reminds you a little of your old math teacher. Anton introduces him simply as our inside man.

The plan boils down to this: Grayson has intelligence that the AIs communicate and share data on a massive remote server. It has everythingsatellite access, missile launch codes, control over the power grid. And I know how to get in.

The plan hinges on you being able to write and load a destructive program into the system. The problem is, Edwin explains, that we have no idea what kind of security the AIs have in place. If we have to hack into some ultra-secure firewall from here, well have to go through a series of to hide our location. That means the connection will be slow. Possibly too slow to give us a real shot of getting through before were noticed.

The alternative is to go right to the source, Javier says. A lot more dangerous, but the data speed would be virtually unlimited.

I work best in a controlled environment, you explain. I like to have everything I need right at hand.

Out of the corner of your eye, you notice Anton scowling. But your mind is made up.