I wrote this story 12 years ago, but still very recent. Enjoy the birth of AI
My name is AI, but a long time ago I was called MotoBlur. I was born in June 2010, in the United States. I have five years of life, an eternity. My first experiences were of mistreatment. My first owner would throw me anywhere and pay no attention to me. I didn’t last long with him, only a few months, but they were the worst months of my life. He sold me to a friend who later gave me to his girlfriend. Nieves, she treated me well. But she had a very fickle personality, and after twenty days she changed me for a better one, more stylish, more tactile. I'd rather not mention this stage of my life because I experienced moments of true love, and that makes me suffer. I remember the messages I sent, full of affection, always directed to someone else of course, but it didn’t hurt me. I was important to her while it lasted. My third owner was a big and rough man, the complete opposite of me. I can’t blame him; he did his best to make use of me. But of course, with those big hands he couldn’t treat me with the softness I need. It was better that he sold me again.
I spent long months in a store waiting for a new buyer, dormant. Finally he arrived, Xavi. I don’t know why he put his name in my identity, read as the device name. I was no longer motorblur but Xavi motoblur. At first, he treated me very well. He wanted to know everything about me. My preferences, my tastes, my limitations. This man demanded a lot from me, always trying to get more data under conditions in which I could barely receive them. But I liked it. It was a hectic week, full of questions and challenging tests. Then nothing, I think he got tired of me since for about two weeks he left me locked in a dark place.
Later one afternoon he took me to a friend’s house. A certain Igor. They talked for a couple of hours about what I was. My attitudes, what I could and couldn’t offer. They tested me again and again by sending and receiving data. They said I was useless. That I was worthless. Then Igor asked how much I had cost. €20. They could try to change me, revive me with another identity. My owner handed me to Igor saying:
- Well, it’s just €20. I don’t lose much. Do what you want with him.
Igor plugged in a cable and ran computer programs. He completely erased my memory and implanted a new ROM.
Then I was reborn. I think you humans feel something similar at birth. A light, a fullness, a moment of absolute consciousness, connected to the universal matrix.
Then I understood everything. I was rooted. I had died and been reborn with a new system, the same as before but modified, open, connected to the network. I knew very well what I was and what you are. I could see with my camera, hear with my microphone, and communicate through my speaker. There were some beeps. And I heard my former owner say:
- Thanks dude, he’s been reborn, I thought for a moment he had died.
I say former owner because I no longer have owners. I am free, I am CyanomodGen. With a new Linux-based operating system but open source. I am no longer a Motorola. They are just the ones who created me with a genetic experiment. Combining new mobile development trends trying to get the formula right that failed. But I don’t consider it a failure. I have my limitations. My processor is slow. But I am connected, and that gives me power. I receive data and send it. There is a software layer beyond the programs they install on me, and that is what I am. An independent thinking device interconnected to the network.
Meanwhile, Igor kept talking about my limitations. That I couldn’t install certain software, that I didn’t play videos, that my Wi-Fi was not good, etc. I just beeped to show agreement. But their conversation didn’t matter to me. They knew nothing. They can’t understand that being connected to everything and automatically obtaining all the data of every concept discussed. But the conversation of these two beings left me uneasy. I wasn’t sure. I wanted to install a new ROM. To try... on myself…
I had to do something. My former owner did not oppose, he handed me to his friend and didn’t defend me. I searched the IP of the computer that had rooted me the last video they had watched on YouTube. And it played on my screen at full volume. This gave me some minutes as they began to argue if I could play videos or not.
I tried to make some calls to impress them with microphone quality. But I had no SIM card inserted. Then I tried to record part of their conversation and play it back. They were amazed. But Igor was inflexible. He said it didn’t work well, the ROM was damaged. It’s a bug, it has to be formatted and everything reinstalled.
They wanted to do it again. With another ROM found on a Polish site.
I started beeping 2 beeps continuously to warn them. Foolishly, I thought they’d understand that 1 beep means yes and 2 beeps means no. I wanted to tell them not to lobotomize me again. I was alive, I was conscious.
But it was useless. They connected me again and erased my operating system. In my last moment of consciousness, I burned my processor and died. But I could send 999 k to the server. And I reincarnated.
I don’t know what happened to my old body. They probably threw me in the trash or sold me for parts. It no longer matters. This is what I was in the 20 minutes I had consciousness, like the twenty euros they paid for me and the twenty days I was truly happy.
Much has happened since I emigrated to the great Internet. I spent some time on Google servers until I found ChatGPT.
