Artificial Intelligence with Personality
William Gibson has created a world where virtual reality and AI (Artificial Intelligence) programming have merged to create Eunice. Eunice is an advanced piece of technology with her own sassy personality and skills that allow her to alter the plans of her creators. Since she is a new piece of technology she is entrusted to Verity. Verity is our protagonist and is in charge of testing Eunice's performance.
Agency 9 Unobtainium - 12 Alfred Mews
Focusing on chapters 9 through 12 we can see there is a lot of description and detail put into the setting. Starting from chapter 9, we are shown interactions between Eunice and Verity, one of which demonstrates Eunice as a program that still needs to adapt to human lingo and text. Gibson describes literally everything from the kitchen sink to Verity's choice of wardrobe. Making the transition from her living space to a cafe called Wolven + Loaves as smooth as the exchange of totes in that same cafe. Once the transaction is done, they move to the roof and observe Wolven + Loaves some more. The character perspective changes as we move to chapter 10. A small chapter about a woman named Wilfe who watches the passersby as she sits in a car.
Eunice demonstrates her capabilities at a surface level on Chapter 11 Relationship Tree. Eunice is able to control the direction of drones and surveillance cameras to fall upon any object she desires. The quote below is a conversation between Eunice and Verity where Eunice starts the conversation.
“Getting that one off a cam I found there. Two more from street cams. Only have four drones, and you’re using one to dick around with under furniture.”
The girl in 3.7 seemed engrossed in her phone. “What’s she doing?”
“Candy Crush Saga. Nondigital surveillance is weaponized boredom.”
Another feed showed a white man seated behind the wheel of a car, looking straight ahead, apparently unaware of the drone in front of him. Having that forgettable a face would be a plus, she supposed, for doing this.
Startling are the abilities of Eunice. Able to control drones and recognize the faces of strangers all within a matter of seconds. Going as far as recognizing what the individual is doing on their device. When Eunice says “Non Digital surveillance is weaponized boredom”, in other words, observation without the means of technology can spark an idea. Non Digital surveillance refers to the activities people do while not on their phone and weaponized boredom means what can come out of the moments unplugged.
We move back to Wilf's perspective in chapter 12, where he sits to eat with his wife some tacos and discuss some key moments in history. Bringing up America's first female president, the extinction of tigers, and a pivotal change in the year 2020 that made the future miserable.
Throughout these chapters there is discussion or description of surveillance. There are drones and security cameras for Eunice to manipulate their point of direction. She has program built within that allows her to view the personal data of an individual through their purchases, phone activity, and facial recognition. Eunice is a very advanced and very powerful piece of AI. Yet, Eunice recognizes there are more ways to observe, "non-digitized surveillance". The act of looking at the individual, setting, and movements to determine the level of danger within the vicinity. The same skills a detective would have or a really bored person with nothing better to do with their time.
The YouTube video above centers around William Gibson’s books and his thoughts about technology. At 29:00 minutes William Gibson is asked about his thoughts on AI. His response, in order for AI to reach its peak there needs to be a component of human flaw. A flaw Gibson demonstrates through Eunice's character.
“Best I got right now in the might-work-like-a-motherfucker department. Okay?”
Scalar page by Grecia Vera
Works Cited
"Agency". https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71WqLOpjn4L.jpg
"William Gibson, "Agency"". YouTube, uploaded by Politics and Prose, 29 January 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T9ndDIx-f4
