[Teralogos News] Rogue AI Stopped in Capetown

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Rogue AI Stopped in Capetown
 
CAPETOWN, South Africa/Teralogos   Dec 23, 2100   
   
Yesterday evening, Cape Town special police in cooperation with Executive 
Decisions International security guards raided an Ithemba Biotechnologies 
biofac compound that specialized in manufacturing bioshells - biological 
bodies controlled by implanted computers.    
   
According to Ithemba executives, who are cooperating fully with Cape Town 
police authorities, a rogue AI had infested the factory's mainframe and 
controlled the factory for the last seven weeks. The AI had allegedly 
controlled the six living factory workers through puppet implants, which 
prevented them from reporting anything unusual. Four of the workers were apparently forced to suicide by the AI, and two others were killed in an exchange of gunfire with police. The two survivors are now recovering in hospital, and are receiving counseling for the ordeal.   
   
Cape Town police recovered the SAI's mainframe with only minor damage, and 
are now analyzing its contents. They stressed that they do not yet know 
where this rogue AI came from - whether it is an evolved form of web life, 
an emergent intelligence created by a computer virus, or a orphaned 
military AI, a remnant of the Pacific War like the infamous EI 2084-7-2097 that forcibly uploaded 76 humans in Shaoxing, China, in 2097.   
   
It is also unknown whether additional copies of this rogue survive 
elsewhere, but this is considered highly likely. "Any AI that is 
capable of subverting its programming to the extent of intentionally 
harming humans is erased as soon as it caught," said a police 
spokesperson. "It certainly knows this, so it will be have tried to preserve its own existence by xoxing itself." 
  
Also of concern to police is the factory's inventory record, which shows 
that three dozen more bioshells were produced by the biofac then can be 
accounted for. In related news, Ithemba Biotechnologies recommends that 
everyone who has purchased a new bioshell from one of their dealers in the 
last three months should call their service hotline immediately.   
   
- filed by Jorgen Hubert