“As you’re about to see the enemy position has become entrenched”
“Thought command not recognised.”
“Hmmmm…”
“Thought command not recognised.”
“Useless machine”
“Ma’am, you just need to think ab-”
“Don’t you dare try to teach me how to use a thought interface. Go get me a bloody touch screen.”
“How’s that nephew of yours doing?”
“Not so great. We had to put him in rehab.”
“What’s he been taking? Not that new nootropic?”
“Nah. He started to develop Virtual Reality Syndrome.”
“That’s rough. Some people just can’t handle modern VR.”
“That sort of addiction runs in my family. It’s why I never touch the stuff.”
“Uh… where do you think you are?”
“Can you dumb it down for me?”
“It’s similar to how people get PTSD. The virus provides a set of stimuli designed to get the AI into a thought loop. The trauma basically puts them in a state of shock.”
“How effective is it?”
“Show the image to any AI and there’s a 90% chance you’ll brick it.”
“And how do you feel about us using this on your own kind.”
“Fortunately for you I wasn’t programmed with the capacity to feel.”
“It looks like the AI doctors were right, there’s nothing seriously wrong with you.”
“But what about my symptoms? I felt like I was burning up from the inside.”
“It seems you have something called a fever.”
“A fever?”
“Basically your artificial immune system is fighting off a particularly strong bacteria. A few managed to sneak their way past and activated your body’s natural defenses. Part of those defenses is raising your body temperature.”
“So it’s not dangerous?”
“No it’s perfectly safe. I had to dig through some old archives but this sort of thing used to happen all the time. The AI doctors just had trouble explaining it.”