by Yifang (Grace) Liang
7th Grade at The York School (Toronto, Ontario)
Honorable Mention
“Miss Johanna Wen, you have over twenty first prizes won at robotics and design tournaments, and you have taught programming part-time for a year,” read aloud Lillian Descartes, the CEO of Technolyf
company, “and tell me again-how old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“Well… ” Descartes leaned back in her chair. The young lady had a resume to rival the numerous men and women whose offers she had dismissed. She was bright, talented, and versatile. Descartes remembered her days as an older teen, excelling in math and sciences, yet only able to be recognized for her talent when she was almost thirty. She wanted to give no other girl the same experience.
Still, Johanna had to prove herself worthy of the job.
“What do you find crucial to the project’s success?”
“This task is to help program AI to run an orphanage based entirely on artificial intelligence,” said Johanna, “If AI must be the caregivers, shouldn’t my task as a programmer be to make them so they
actually give care?”
Lillian Descartes looked intently at Johanna, processing her words. At last, she nodded.
“Alright. You are hired.”
The next afternoon, Johanna sat at a table with the Technolyf programming team. They stared intently at their screens, clacking away at their keyboards. Along with the rest of her team, Johanna revised the lines of code that dictated the movement of the LyfBots, robots tasked with caring for children in the TechnoLyf orphanage.
When the programmers executed the test program, she watched as the robots moved around in a makeshift nursery, complete with mannequin babies. Their movements were elegant and precise, very
similar to those of actual humans. Still, Johanna sensed that something was missing.
“Well, looks like we’ve finally had a perfect test run,” a cheerful voice from the head of the table interrupted Johanna’s thoughts. It was James Fleetwood, the head of the TechnoLyf “why don’t we
come in tomorrow for another debugging, and present our final results to the CEO.”
He looked around for any objections, and the senior members of the TechnoLyf programming team all nodded. However, Johanna stood up.
“Not yet. I think we should have different test subjects,” she said firmly, “we should have the MiniBots the company produced last week replace those mannequins as test babies. They are more realistic.”
Gazes of shock shot in her direction. Fleetwood squinted at her, and began in a patronizing tone.
“Young lady, we cannot afford to waste more resources. The LyfBots are gentle to these mannequins, and will be to children in the future orphanage.”
“Mannequins are not similar enough to children,” replied Johanna.
“And Minibots make a difference?”
“You’ll see.”
Skeptical, the team lead Johanna to the TechnoLyf warehouse. After finding the MiniBot section, Johanna instructed the workers to put the MiniBots in the cribs of the Nursery Simulation. As the Minibots were relocated, Johanna linked all of the MiniBots’ code to her computer, assigned variables to each MiniBot’s limbs, and typed in lines of code to simulate a restless baby’s tantrum.
“Execute the LyfBots test program,” she commanded the team. The LyfBots began moving around, and interacting with the MiniBots. Everything was as orderly as their previous trial.
Then, Johanna clicked ‘execute’ on the MiniBots’ program.
Wails echoed through the nursery. The MiniBots flailed around in the arms of the LyfBots, emitting loud screeches. The LyfBots, however, were indifferent; they carried and pretended to feed the screaming
‘babies’ as they did before with the mannequins. When the MiniBots did not calm themselves, they simply lowered them back into the cribs, waited a few moments, before attempting the process again.
Johanna clicked ‘Quit’ on her program, and turned to the rest of her team.
“Well?” Amelia Byron, a middle-aged engineer, spoke up,“Miss Wen, the LyfBots have demonstrated such technicality. May we now report to CEO Descartes?”
“Ms. Byron,” Johanna spun around in her chair, “if a child is crying and a parent does not respond to any of their needs, is that neglect?”
“Of course!” The woman exclaimed, affronted.
“If a highly intelligent robot does the same, the child would be impacted in the same way,” concluded Johanna. She turned to face Fleetwood.
“Tell CEO Descartes to give us a month-long extension.”
“Month-long?” Fleetwood exclaimed, “CEO Descartes would be outraged!”
“I would rather her be outraged now at the extension, than outraged at a poorly run orphanage a year later,” retorted Johanna.
Defeated, Fleetwood marched towards the CEO’s office.
A month later, Lillian Descartes marched into the programmers’ headquarters, a stern expression on her face. James Fleetwood rose to greet her.
“Are the LyfBots ready?” demanded Descartes.
“Almost, madam. We’ve completed programming the set of ‘reactive physical affection’ that Johanna Wen recommended. She’s finishing the last parts. Go to Wen for more details.”
He pointed to the other side of the table. Descartes walked behind Johanna, and saw on her screen two thermal maps.
“What are you doing?” Descartes inquired.
Johanna did not look up, “Attaching a reactive heating system to the LyfBots. Humans have body heat. We need the LyfBots to be as human as possible.”
Descartes smiled. The project had improved, having this young lady and her experience with children and as a child, too.
“Are we ready to test with live subjects?”
“Huh? ” Johanna stopped clicking, and her gaze met the CEO’s.
Descartes nodded, and behind her, walked a line of several toddlers. They were chattering excitedly. Behind them were two nurses, watching over them and ready to usher them into the nursery. Johanna
hesitated, and Descartes sensed her unease. She placed a hand on the young woman’s shoulder.
“The experienced nurses will watch the kids. This will be the same way for the first two months of opening Technolyf Homes.” Descartes reassured Johanna, “We’ll make sure that the caregivers give
care.”
Johanna smiled. The children filed into the nursery and climbed in the cribs, and she executed the test program.
The LyfBots carried the children with the same delicate movements as the first testing, but when the children screamed or cried, they did not act as negligent as they did before. Shushed them in low, soothing voices, the AI patted them on the back until they calmed down. Johanna closed the program, and the children filed out, slightly worn out but content. The team began clapping. Descartes smiled, and turned to the line of programmers, but looking at her youngest and most recent protege.
“Thank you for your contributions and thoughtfulness.”