Page 43 of Chaos Theory

FORTY-ONE

MAEVE

Just like we decided, we find two seats at the end of a row near the back of the main auditorium. The stage is being set up for a panel discussion on AI ethics. Every row in front of us looks fully occupied. Ron’s last-minute addition to the panel must have bumped up the numbers.

I crane my neck to see the stage. Four plush white leather armchairs are lined up in the centre. Purple spotlights warm the stage, while the audience is consigned to near-darkness. I take advantage of the dim light and squeeze Josh’s hand.

‘Exciting,’ I whisper to him, and mean it. I’m right where I should be.

I review the conference brochure on my phone.

After watching her lectures online and reading a good chunk of her book, I’m eager to see Professor Mimi Lee in the flesh.

There’ll be a conference dinner this evening.

Maybe I’ll see Mimi there and we’ll be able to have a chat about Kobi?

Unlikely Ron will be staying for the dinner, according to Josh.

The third member of the panel is an English academic I haven’t heard of – Geoffrey Johnson.

The purple spotlights swoop out over the crowd as jaunty piano music heralds the arrival of the panel moderator. A tall blonde woman sweeps confidently to the front of the stage, her smile like a floodlight.

‘Oh!’ I elbow Josh, who’s busy scrolling on his device. ‘Look who it is!’

‘Who is it?’ says Josh, not looking.

The woman on-stage introduces herself before I can name her. ‘Hello, I’m Laura Cantwell from Precision Health Instruments.’

Josh drops his phone and begins urgently swearing to himself.

‘It’s okay,’ I say. ‘Your phone is just there – look, under the seat in front of you.’

He goes down on his hands and knees between the rows of chairs – not an easy feat for a man his size. He sticks his head out the end of our row and looks up at the stage. Then he turns his head searchingly to survey the back of the room.

‘Are you okay?’ I whisper. Laura’s name wasn’t on the programme, but I’m glad to see her again.

I’ll make sure to find her later to give her a full Kobi update.

I suddenly picture myself, Laura and Mimi, wine glasses in hand, propping up the bar while I recount Kobi’s escapades at the Burren in exquisitely entertaining detail.

Just three women working in the industry, hanging out together and swapping stories.

Laura is introducing the panellists as they make their way to their seats.

Geoffrey Johnson and Mimi Lee emerge through the cream folds draped across the stage, microphones at the ready, but Ron – who I recognise from his online profile – bounds towards the stage from elsewhere in the auditorium and up the three steps at the side, giving the audience a kind of goofy wave.

As soon as he sits down, a technician appears and discreetly hands him a microphone.

Laura settles the panel in with some preliminary questions, batting them easy balls to lob back to her.

Ron appears the most relaxed, in blue jeans and sport coat, resting one ankle on his knee to show off embroidered cowboy boots.

His facial hair is neatly groomed. He’s trim, in good shape.

Mimi looks small and neat and cool in a black shirt, black blazer, black tailored trousers, flat shoes and no socks.

Geoffrey sits rigidly between them, sipping too much water and staring straight ahead.

Laura asks Geoffrey a broad question about AI in the workplace.

He clears his throat and begins his answer with, ‘Let me reframe the question in two ways – epistemologically and historically. Oh, and also philosophically.’ Four minutes later, he has not yet provided his answer to the newly reframed question, neither epistemologically, historically nor philosophically.

I audibly tut. The panel is only scheduled to last thirty-five minutes.

Laura interrupts Geoffrey at last. ‘Let me bring Ron in on this. Ron, we’ve met before, and I should say that we at PHI have enjoyed the company of your latest creation, the Kobi 3000. It’s an amazing example of where the field of collaborative robotics is going.’

I nudge Josh. ‘Kobi!’ I whisper a little too loudly. A guy in front of me turns his head to glance at me.

‘Why, thank you,’ says Ron.

‘So,’ Laura begins. ‘The question is – let’s take an advanced AI robot like the Kobi 3000. Do you think such cobots are ready to work alongside humans on the factory floor or in other workplace settings?’

Is Laura baiting Ron into discussing Kobi’s meltdown, and in front of a live audience at that?

But wouldn’t that make PHI look bad? I want to ask Josh these questions but he’s now visibly sweating beside me, gripping the sides of his chair, running his hands through his hair every thirty seconds.

I guess his hangover is finally kicking in.

‘Well, you tell me, Laura. You’re the one who’s been trialling Kobi in your workplace.’ Ron is completely relaxed in his response, Southern charm in his accent. Wait, is he… flirting ?

‘Maeve,’ says Josh in my ear. ‘There’s something?—’

‘Shh,’ I say. ‘I’m dying to hear this. She’s so ballsy.’

But Laura is laughing. Wait, is she flirting?

Ron suddenly leans forward in his chair, holds the microphone close to his mouth.

‘Let me put it to you this way, Laura. Allow me to borrow Geoffrey’s reframing device here for a second.

Much obliged to you, Geoff.’ Ron bows his head sideways towards Geoffrey, who makes a muddled gesture in Ron’s direction in return.

He continues: ‘I would put that question back to you as: are you people ready to work alongside our robots?’

He pauses for effect. Then he turns his body towards the audience and addresses us directly, in hypnotic tones. ‘We’re creating the workforce of the future. We’re going to make your working life easier. Maybe you’ll only need to come in three days a week. How does that sound?’

A couple of guys whoop from the front row.

‘Exactly,’ says Ron. ‘The technology is here. We’re just waiting for y’all to catch up.’

He sits back in his chair with a satisfied smile.

Laura smiles too and nods. ‘Let me bring Professor Lee in on this. Professor Lee, your area of speciality is ethics. Do you think – and Ron, I’m going to phrase this in a way that will hopefully be acceptable to everyone – do you think humans and AI cobots are ready to work together in harmony?’

Mimi also smiles. ‘Thank you for the question. Unlike my fellow panellists, I will not be requiring the reframing device in order to respond.’

A ripple of gentle laughter washes across the auditorium. I remember why I enjoyed her lectures so much.

‘To give you a simple answer – no, we are not ready,’ she says.

‘A lot of things happen before we’re ready for them,’ Ron interrupts. ‘If I was to sit around and wait for everyone to be ready, why…for a start, I’d never get to a dinner reservation on time.’ Ron positively twinkles at the audience, who laugh along in return.

‘You didn’t let me finish,’ says Mimi calmly.

‘Please, continue,’ says Laura.

‘I was about to say: we are not ready, but it is already happening. As usual – and I’m sure Ron would at least agree with this part – the technology is years, perhaps decades, ahead of laws, regulations and guidelines.

What we need to do now, as fast as we can, is to make sure that we put in place the rules by which we want robots to operate in the workplace.

And – this part is really important – we need to make sure that the people who write those rules are not the same people who are selling us the robots.

For a new way of working to be robust, it needs to have input from everyone who will be affected. ’

‘That sounds just swell,’ says Ron. ‘I will happily attend any meeting you manage to organise with all parties.’

‘Ah,’ says Geoffrey, who suddenly seems emboldened to join in. ‘I do believe I detect some sarcasm in Mr Tron’s response.’

‘Not at all,’ says Ron. ‘I want to do whatever it takes to ensure cobots are accepted in the workplace. I just think that we’ll never reach this set of perfect golden rules that Professor Lee seems so focused on.’

‘I never said perfect—’ says Mimi, but Ron interrupts again.

‘Laura, if I may? There’s an elephant in the room here that all of us have been ignoring, and he’s getting mighty impatient.’

Even though I know this is a cliché, Ron is such a commanding speaker that I covertly glance all around the room – just in case. Hopefully Josh doesn’t notice. Luckily, he seems preoccupied with checking his watch and scrolling on his phone, in between sweaty glances at the stage.

Laura puts her deck of talking-point flashcards on the table. ‘I guess I won’t be needing these any more,’ she says to a handful of laughs. ‘Let’s get this elephant centre stage.’

‘The way I see it is this,’ starts Ron. ‘We don’t really need to worry about the robots. The ones we need to worry about are’ – he stirs his microphone in a full circle to encompass the panel and the audience, then pauses for dramatic effect – ‘us.’

‘Ooh, he has a point,’ says Geoffrey, swept up in the drama.

‘Geoff, my man, please,’ says Ron.

‘Sorry. Do go on.’