Artificial Will Intelligence

“Hey hun’, this website might be better than anything our lawyers can do,” Cathy said to her husband.

“How so? Is it any good?” Andrew asked back as he walked across their kitchen to his wife. She was on her laptop at the dining room table. He left eggplants for their baba ganoush roasting in the oven. No matter how rich they got, he still loved to cook. Cathy still loved to garden.

“Well, it looks better than doyourownwill.com."

Andrew laughed out loud at that memory. “I was kinda likin’ that rocketLawyer.com site or maybe legalZoom. And I agree, our lawyers aren’t all that trustworthy anyway.”

“Yeah,” Cathy humored him. She didn’t have a problem with their lawyers, but this site was amazing. “Have a look. This one has a forecast of what your will will DO to everyone you add to it.”

“I don’t understand.” Andrew leaned over her shoulder to look at a video she was about to click.

Cathy clicked a link and a nice looking young woman, with jet-black hair started speaking. “At successionPlanWills.gov our artificial intelligence allows you to see how your personal resources will change the lives of everyone in your family. Utilizing our confidential access to the 2020 US census data, IRS records, and social media web-scrapes we can predict with 99% accuracy the impact of your choices.

“Let's have a look at customer…”. Cathy hit pause just before the saleswoman giving them a walkthrough of the software. She looked up at Andrew.

“Is this for real?” Andrew asked her. “Sounds pretty cool though. Even if it doesn’t work, it would be funny to see what they thought would happen to Meg and Ally!” They were considering giving a large portion of their fortune to their nieces. They knew this would upset both sides of their extended family. Cathy and Andrew thought the drama would be fun to see. Too bad they would have to die for the will to be executed.

“This would be so great. The software looks so hi res! It pulls in footage of our family, like from TikTok, and makes a video showing them getting our money, our home, and how they all react. It shows how they grow old and what our assets do for their lives!”

Cathy navigated to her account page. “I already set up a profile for us.” She said to Andrew, who furrowed his brow for just a moment, looking down at her suspiciously. She went to a page where they would select which family members they wanted to add. “This is to select which family members to predict the future. Who should we add for the first run? With a free account, we get only one attempt with a max of three people added to our will.”

“Free? Ha! Amazing.” Andrew said with a level of disbelief. “How about we just put in Meg and Ally?”

Cathy scrolled through a pre-populated list of all their family members on the left side of the screen. She clicked Ally first, and a card with her name and image flew over to the right side of the page. Cathy clicked Meg and her ID card flew over with Ally’s. She clicked the bright green next button at the bottom of the selected ID cards column.

A new screen loaded where they were to estimate the value of their assets at the top and then allocate percentages to each person in their will. Andrew said: “Lets just put in fifty-million dollars.”

“Okay, and for this first run do you want to just give it all to Meg and see what happens between her and Ally?” Cathy asked with a mischievous smile across her face.

“Oh, you know it!” Andrew excitedly said, eyes fixed unblinkingly on the screen as he sat down in the chair next to his wife. Cathy moved her cursor over the continue button. Before she could hit it, Andrew asked her to “Wait a minute! How much does the next run cost if we want to add more people?”  

Cathy looked like a guilty child for a brief moment. Turning to the side with uncertain eyes and biting her lip, she offered “I think it’s nine-ninety nine.” Andrew replied that “a thousand dollars was nothing!” Smiling, he continued “our lawyers charge that much.” But his wife was looking at him and spoke up again that “no, no, hun. This is ultra-premium AI. It’s $999,000.”

Andrew freaked for a moment, then agreed to continue: “Well, the first run is free and we can discuss if we really want to pay almost a million dollars for this ‘ultra-premium’ stuff.” He was totally against it in his head, but still… he wanted to see.

Cathy hit a blue button labeled continue. A countdown appeared on the screen. “Estimated time: 15 seconds” along with a spinning circle of dots was all that the screen held. 14, 13, 12… a disclaimer popped up saying: “with only two people added, prediction accuracy is 82%.” The countdown soon concluded … 3,2,1, and then a video popped up.

The video began with an intro blurb showcasing Succession Plan Wills’ branding (SPW) and then moved right on to show Meg and Ally. Both girls were watching a Zoom meeting with a representative of SPW.  

The quality of the video would have been nothing special if it was filmed by a person. But this was all computer-generated. It was a bit unsettling to see. Cathy and Andrew glanced briefly at each other, then focused on the screen again.

“All Cathy and Andrews’ assets, both liquid and otherwise have been left in their entirety to Megan. This includes cash, home, vehicles, stock, bonds, and the like. See appendix A in email for complete details of the approximate $40 million. The complete ownership stake in Cathy’s audiobook publishing company is transferred to Megan. The copyright of its catalog is transferred to Megan as well estimated at another approximate $10 million. All pets still living are also transferred in ownership to Megan.” 

Ally remained quiet for a moment, waiting for something to be willed to her, perhaps. The SPW representative confirmed, “that is all.” And Meg jumped for joy! She pointed at her sister and exclaimed “See! I was the favorite! Oh my God, I can’t believe this! Fifty million dollars!” She laughed and moved around the room, waving her hands in the air.

“No. No, no, no! This can’t be right. Can you email that to me, please? This can’t be right!” But the SPW rep just said: “It’s right.”

The scene cut away to a year later. Meg and her friend Eva were sunbathing in a pool at their new house. Andrew asked his wife: “Could you pause this, please? Who is that?” Cathy clued him in. “That’s Meg’s friend from school, Eva.”

Cathy pressed play again. The camera zoomed down from a bird’s view showing the entire estate to the poolside to listen to the girls talking. “What would we be doing right now if we hadn’t gotten $50 Million?” Eva asked Meg.  

“We’d probably be in nursing school like we always planned.” Cathy let it continue playing but gasped and said: “They always wanted to get into nursing. I remember their junior year they signed up for advanced classes at the hospital. Oh, that’s a little sad.” The video played on.

“Do you think Ally is enjoying her schooling?” Meg laughed, sort of a dark sinister laugh (if such a sound could come from their sweet innocent niece). It sounded kind of like a mean girl. In fact, they looked and moved kind of like snobs during this conversation.

The video faded to black and re-opened on Ally in her dorm room. She was writing an email and proofreading it. She asked her roommate to come over. “How does this sound. Hey sis, another bill for school is coming soon with the new semester. I could get some credits for Michigan State’s program if I had another couple thousand dollars. I know I asked for this last year and you didn’t want to give me any money, but it would be a huge help for my education and career. Could you please reconsider?”

Ally’s roommate shook her head. “That sounds like you already think she’s going to turn you down. Try to make it more upbeat.” Ally erased the entire message and started over. “How about this? Hi Meg, for $2k I could be well on my way to joining the millionaire ranks with you! I just need a couple more classes from MSU. Can you help me please?”

The video went to black again and re-opened ten years in the future. Ally was on first this time. Overhead of huge fields, the camera zoomed to a modest building. Inside the screen showed a door with Ally’s name on it along with her title: Virtuoso Farms, Director of Operations. Ally was on a video conference. “I’ve sent over our completed fiscal year-end balance sheet, business plan, and cash flow statement. I think you’ll find everything for our expansion.” Presumably, a banker on the other end agreed: “Yes, I’m sure your loan will process quickly and you’ll be able to start this project right away. Good luck Ally!”

She walked out and to Cathy and Andrew’s surprise, Megan was at a desk in the lobby. “Hey sis, can you go get us some lunch?” Ally asked Meg. In a sarcastic response, Meg scowled and answered “Oh, sure thing, sis.” Ally rolled her eyes. “A little more optimism. It’s not the end of the world here Meg.” Megan began to tear up. The camera panned in to see it clearly. She turned her head and put on the jacket that was hanging over her office chair. “You’re the boss.” Sighing, she faced her sister again. “I’m sorry, it’s just a lot to process. Losing so much money. Losing my friends. I am grateful you know. It’s just going to take some time to get back to normal.”

Ally confirmed “I know. And it’s ok. Just go get us some lunch please.” She laughed. “Just kidding. I’ll go with you. Just let me make one more call first and we can go together.”

The screen went black. Cathy and Andrew looked at each other. Andrew muttered, “What just happened?” The video ended on an image with text across the screen explaining the next steps. It said to increase accuracy and reveal more details by adding more people to their will. It also offered a discount of 10% off if they ordered within 24 hours of the first trial version of the will.

Cathy asked “should we believe this? I mean didn’t this just say we ruined Meg’s life?” Andrew replied: “It did! I think it really did. How can we believe this crap?” 

They were very quiet for the rest of the night. Cathy and Andrew drank wine on their deck overlooking the fluff on Lake Michigan’s shoreline. They went to bed without saying much more to each other.  

Andrew woke up the next morning and made coffee for the two of them. Cathy came down to the smell of Folgers. “You know what else that video meant? It basically said that we’d both be dead next year if Meg and Ally are in that stage of their lives.”

“Impossible! We’re in great health. This program is a load of garbage.” Andrew stared out at the seagulls that were searching for their breakfast on the lake.

Cathy brought out her tablet and started searching for other user testimonies about Succession Plan Wills. First was an ad, sponsored by the company. She skipped over that and went to consumer reports. There was not much info there. Back on the search page she next to scam adviser. SPW was not even mentioned as a scam. She went next in the search results to trueNews.org. “Creepy capabilities, totally legit” was a header of an article talking about SPW. Several real-life situations were documented. The results were confirmed.

“Looks like you found something?” Andrew asked her, seeing the deep-thought face replace sleepy disbelief.

“I did. Take a look at this. Lots of people confirm it works. They say just like the screen told us… the more people we add, the more accurate it gets, although that costs more. And look at this! For an additional fee, we can buy a “death predictor” package that will tell us when and how we will die. An interview with chief engineer Lana Wichcowz says the biggest hurdle they had to overcome in predicting how inheritance affected people was the timing of the wealth transfer. They had to know when the customers would die. They share details for an additional million dollars. They even say that they only bill you after you die, and only if the death matches their prediction.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, Cathy. Who’s ever heard of anything like this?” Andrew asked, incredulously.

“Andrew, several testimonials show it worked. The children of Ursula Leplace said their mother dies exactly as predicted: mugging. The grandchildren of Kurt Frisby said his death from Covid-19 happened as predicted. There are tons of other people who haven’t died yet, and none of them have been charged a dime yet.

“Okay, well, I guess what do we have to lose. We have the money and they won’t charge us if it goes wrong. Let's do it.” Andrew, shocked at himself, agreed. Cathy fired up her laptop and went back into the SPW site. She entered their bank account information and completed some forms along with Andrew.

“Want to just run it again with Meg and Ally but add our death prediction? We should get more details on what the heck happened to Meg.” Cathy asked and Andrew somewhat nervously agreed.

They watched the new video. It was as long as a feature-length movie. At one point Andrew laughed in surprise. “She donated her estate to a charity that turned out to be a fraud?” And shortly after, Cathy said: “Eva got depressed and turned to drugs? Terrible! She was always so upbeat! Oh God, help those poor girls.” Andrew noticed “Oh, and Megan left Eva to stay away from drugs. Wow. That’s what she meant in that first video when she told Ally how she lost all her money and all her friends.” 

“Hey Cathy,” Andrew started after the video was over. “Want to see if we can change this future by spreading the money out to more people?”

“Well, sure, but first we have to get our death prediction.” Cathy looked at him like he had lost his mind. “Oh! Yes.” Andrew said and turned back to the screen. Cathy downloaded a pdf explaining their death. “Hmm, Car Crash.” She said.  

“Ha! Well, that’s easy enough to change! We can just stop driving cars!” Andrew laughed and got up for another refill of ice water. It was almost noon.

“Hold on hun. It goes on to say this future is inevitable. We can not change it. Due to the nature of our business transaction with SPW, they are able only to tell us facts that will encourage our death. It suggests we’ve probably already thought of no longer driving to avoid a car crash. They say that will encourage our death.”

“Well, then we just keep driving our own cars. Or we hire a driver.” Andrew fought back.

Cathy read on: “They say that they know exactly what option we will choose based on how they have written this letter. They know we will die in a car crash in August next year, just before Ally’s classes start up again.”

Andrew remembered an old FRIENDS tv show episode where two friends knew that their other two friends didn’t know that we know they know we know. “Hmm, very tricky.”

Cathy read the final paragraph. “Oh wow, you won’t believe this. For another million we can buy another package called FUTURE CHANGER PLUS. It is proven to change our death and change the future for anyone in our will.”

“Well, we’re already two million down. What’s one more?” Andrew smiled and sat back down, ice water in hand. He took a sip and said: “Go ahead and confirm that purchase. How do we put in the future we want to happen?”

Cathy went back into the SPW site. It somehow knew they would choose this option and the entire user interface was replaced with a single text box, headed with text reading “Type your desired future. Your entry can be conversational and we will figure it out for you, create another video. You can revise your entry as often as you like for an additional $500,000 each revision.”

“Creepy,” Cathy said.

“Let's write something about Meg and Eva getting most of our money and living happy wealthy lives. And Ally gets enough money to cover her schooling, as long as she still gets that director job. Oh! And we don’t die till we’re 80” Andrew offered, and Cathy started writing.

“Well written, dear! Ok, let's see how it turns out.”

They watched the video. “Well shit. We can do that right now without a will.” Andrew mused. Cathy agreed: “It does make sense to help Ally with school we’d have to pay for it now. And Meg’s life looked pretty stable too if we don’t die till we’re 80. I mean she’s 16 now, so she’d be in her 30s I guess when we’re in our 80s.”

“Let’s write another one.” But the screen showed a new pop up. It read: Consider a living trust in addition to your will. Pass your property on to your loved ones now rather than after you die!

“They’ve thought of everything in this app.” Cathy thought.