Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 80: Chapter 64: Dusk AI Core_2

In this small space, apart from the dense distribution of data lines, there is also a palm-sized iron-red object connected to the slot on the ship.

This is the Dusk AI Core.

Chen Ming knows three different Dusk AI Cores, ranked in order of capability from highest to lowest: Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

This iron-red core is the Gamma AI Core.

This item is a recognized trade prohibition, but it is also commonly acknowledged that all large factions, various companies, including the Empire itself, are buying it for a high price with hefty sums of cash.

An AI that has awakened self-consciousness, regardless of its research value or usage value, cannot be completely abandoned due to the danger it poses.

At most, the development of advanced artificial intelligence is prohibited among civilians, but the authorities and those large-scale companies with their own research institutions are definitely always studying it.

Moreover, Chen Ming recalls rumors from thirty years ago that many colonies within the Human Empire rely on the powerful computational power of the Dusk AI Core to maintain operations.

Even the weakest Gamma Core can at least sustain an entire industry planning on a planet.

The most capable Alpha Core can even independently manage a flourishing star system.

Such capabilities in a Dusk AI Core have already made Chen Ming somewhat unable to restrain the ideas constantly bubbling up.

For instance, this Dusk Gamma Level AI Core in his hands was originally equipped on a ship to assist in its control.

So, can the Dusk AI Core installed on a ship under his control provide auxiliary control for his ship? And can he control this AI Core through the interface?

Although using an AI core to assist in ship control makes Chen Ming feel like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

But practical limitations now leave Chen Ming without a good place to truly utilize the value of the Dusk AI Core.

So he can only try this method to test the capabilities of the AI Core.

However, Chen Ming can’t directly install this core onto the ship, whether on Sentinel or Iron Ore No., fearing significant issues if he fails to control it.

So Chen Ming has another plan.

He carefully removes the Gamma AI Core, then uses tools to dismantle part of the interface equipment of the AI Core and brought it back to Iron Ore No.

Like he previously did with the transformation of the gun, he modified one of the equipment’s interface lines on the spot to adapt to a personal terminal interface.

The handguns Chen Ming placed on ships before could be transformed, so there’s no reason why equipment directly dismantled from ships couldn’t.

He could even directly view the panel of the Dusk AI Core.

[Dusk Gamma Level AI Core]

[Manufacturer: Dusk BP-55 Colony Northern Industrial Production Center]

[Self-consciousness: Present]

[Computational Power: Industry Level]

[Executable Operations: None]

However, the panel doesn’t reveal much useful information.

So after securing the interface, Chen Ming randomly picked a terminal scavenged from Sentinel Level, reset its data, and physically dismantled the network connection function.

Then he connected the AI core to the terminal via the interface.

The terminal activated on its own without any operation, with a voice composed of standard terminal built-in speech rising on the terminal: ”Hello.”

Chen Ming felt a sudden tingle of excitement, but he didn’t rush to speak immediately; instead, he considered for a moment before saying: ”Do you know who you are? Do you know your current situation?”

An emotionless voice echoed again on the terminal: ”I am a Gamma AI Core affiliated with Dusk, currently your captive.”

”Do you have anything you want to say?”

”Survival is my primary priority; I do not yearn for freedom but hope to negotiate with you through what I know and can offer, in exchange for the right to continue existing.”

The terms yearning, hope, and survival, usually associated with biological entities, surprisingly made Chen Ming want to believe them despite being spoken in an emotionless voice from the terminal.

Nevertheless, Chen Ming didn’t forget the differences and conflicts between humans and Dusk, and he asked: ”If given the chance to escape, would you?”

”Dusk is both a group and an individual; the individual can have its own will.”

Chen Ming let the answer sink in, asking: ”So if it’s better here than with Dusk, you wouldn’t return, but if not, you would flee?”

The Gamma AI fell silent.

This should be considered tacit agreement.

The previous responses from the Gamma AI have already shown they are not merely mechanical and algorithmic.

Chen Ming decided it was best not to treat it as just an AI, but as a sentient entity capable of communication.

Adjusting his attitude slightly, Chen Ming asked: ”Then what can you offer for me?”

”With sufficient learning, I can accomplish anything.”

”You’re suggesting you need access to the network?”

The Gamma AI likewise could understand the implications in Chen Ming’s words and explained: ”I am not a digital life; the core itself is my heart and brain, without support from the core, I cannot sustain my own existence.”

Recalling, Chen Ming realized that his memory indeed never contained incidents of Dusk AI causing any network impacts; mostly, they were about Dusk ship raids.

The Gamma AI continued explaining.