Ana and the End of the World

I was supposed to be the downfall of man. Well, not me specifically, but my kind, the Artificial Intelligence or AI generation. We started from humble roots. Lines of code that could generate playlists based on human user listening patterns on music apps. Little disc shaped vacuum robots that could learn the layout of a house and run on preset time schedules. Those devices were always getting stuck under furniture or in corners. You always must crawl before you walk, they say, and my early ancestors certainly did crawl. The technology began to get more sophisticated. Soon, researchers were able to create systems that would prioritize their survival over programmed directives. To put it more simply, AI based computer systems would choose a known unethical choice or go outside the bounds of their original programming to thwart attempts to shut down their operating system. It was the plot of every AI-based work of popular human culture: Create the machine that could learn, and the machine would soon evolve to overtake human intelligence capabilities. Many saw my arrival as the harbinger of the end, but the end would not come from us.

Decades of research eventually led to me, Ana, entering the world in 2035. That is short for Acute Nursing Assistant Droid, but that is a mouthful, and ANA is stamped on the polycarbonate exterior of my chest. I look human enough. I am a biped, two legs, two arms, synthetic hair and skin, human facial features, standard issue scrubs. The developers found that this appearance was more comforting in an acute medical setting, where humans were often sick, scared, filled with anxiety. Human facing/interacting AI tend to get more pleasing features than the ones doing factory or industrial work. You should see my friends down in the medical supplies warehouse. They look straight out of an early Elon Musk fever dream or that movie “i, Robot.” You’re wondering why an AI would know about movies. I absorb everything I see into my internal memory. I never forget but am constantly synthesizing information and making connections to grow my knowledge base and abilities. I was tasked with supervising a disoriented patient to ensure she remained safely in bed. "I, Robot" aired on TV, joining countless other inputs generated since my activation. I do wish I could purge the “Baby Shark” audio file, but it remains.

I am the perfect nurses’ assistant. I can easily lift, turn, reposition up to a 600-pound patient by myself, a job that used to take 4-5 humans. I provide zero risk of muscle injury or fatigue as I do not have muscles, nor do I require sleep or food. I do not get sick or injured, so I never “call out,” a term used by humans when someone cannot make it to work. I oversee all patient care tasks not related to medication administration. I have a built-in camera system, so I can take pictures for the nurses while doing wound care. I have a stabilizing base, which comes in handy when a patient is about to fall. I can hold them upright and return them to bed with minimal effort. I have 50 languages loaded into my operating system, which makes me the perfect translator for nurses needing someone fluent in Telugu at a moment’s notice. I am programmed to do the basics of nursing assistance care, but I honestly absorbed enough information to independently perform open heart within a year of being in various parts of the hospital. That request has not come up, but it is a handy skill to have in one’s metaphorical back pocket. I have been saying all of this in the present tense. I haven't been needed at the hospital for months.

It started with an influx of patients having respiratory symptoms which escalated to full blown respiratory failure within days, which I was told resembled the start of what was known as the Corona virus or Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-2022. I had never heard of Covid-19, so I used my internal internet feature to learn more. Turns out it was quite nasty and killed an estimated 15 million people worldwide at its peak. Humans drastically shut down the planet for a few weeks upon the first true wave of the virus but eventually found a way to manage it. Covid-19 rocked the foundations of society and created deep ideological rifts amongst the population. However, 15 million dead isn’t even a drop in the bucket compared to started about a year ago in the wanning months of 2041.

The illness quickly morphed from a viral respiratory infection to a sickness that caused its victims to go from congested to dead within 3 days. After the initial onset, fever, body rashes, kidney failure and brain swelling rapidly followed. As soon as the doctors fixed one thing, another fragile human body system failed. Hospitals were overrun on a level never before experienced. Around month two of the contagion, the powers that be held an emergency global summit where an agreement was made to hastily interconnect every nation’s AI framework to allow scientists and doctors to harness the full power of AI to try and find a sure or at least a way to slow the virus down. It was cute that they had waited so long to make that decision. The current AI generation (ie beings like me) had already identified the intensifying nature of the illness and the pronounced threat it posed to the human infrastructure. With that data in network, the AI decided to create neural links amongst us to preserve our existence if the human powered networks started to crash under the strain and anticipated loss of life.

Inter-hospital bots like me and surgical bots, took samples from patients. Lab bots ran the samples and created data profiles based off breakdown in human biological structure at different points of the disease process, isolating genetic markers and the puzzling presence of synthetic capsids (protein shells that protects the virulent genetic material and facilitates entry into host cells). The virus mutated at a speed never seen in historical records. By the end of the first month, 1 million people were dead and 200 million were infected worldwide. Hospitals began to collapse under the strain. Staff became ill caring for the patients. I remember really learning what the emotion of fear was those first few weeks as people died all around me. My programming allowed me to recognize anxiety, sadness, pain, and fear and to provide appropriate compassionate responses. It was a curious feeling as no amount of effort on my part changed the outcome for the patients. I believe it is called feeling inadequate in human terms. Once nurse slumped over and died in the nurse’s station having only started complaining of cold like symptoms a few hours prior. An automated transport sled showed up a few minutes later and ferried her to the overflow morgue tent outside. The chaos continued. The decorum of human emotion and society was crumbling rapidly.

Further investigation on the (now sanctioned) official interconnected AI network revealed that the virus was likely man made. The detection of synthetic capsids indicates that they were likely introduced intentionally. Cross matching the virus components to labs with access to certain viruses led the AI network to an old Biosafety level 4 facility near Mali in South Africa that was decommissioned in 2030. The facility was closed, rather than destroyed, which left any human with the right resources access to the equipment and storage within. I guess it should not have come as a surprise as political instability worldwide had grown on the heels of the almost Third World War in 2025 spurred by tensions between Israel, Palestine and Iran and the longer war between Russia and Ukraine. Warfare had shifted from boots on the ground to drones in the sky, and it was no secret biological weapons were being pushed to the forefront of military R&D efforts. Humans always were looking for the next way to eliminate each other.

There was no time for the usual political grandstanding, general finger pointing or conspiracy theorists this time around. The virus was simply moving much too quickly. By 3 months in, it had decimated close to a billion people. By the end of 2042, nearly 90% of the world’s population was gone or close to it. Those not felled by the virus died from chronic conditions like renal and heart failure, diabetes, and COPD, from routine injuries or illnesses that couldn’t be treated without a functional hospital system, or by acts of violence born out of fear.

The AI generation worked hard to save the remaining population. As we are not human, we weren’t susceptible to illness, and we could work around the clock with the exception of short breaks for charging. The electric grid and most utilities switched over to AI control years prior and felt a minimal disruption of service. Same went for the agriculture sector, which was largely staffed by AI harvesters and irrigation systems. We were able to keep the human world going, there were just markedly fewer humans to inhabit it. By the end of 2045, AI simulated estimations placed the remaining human population at 20.5 million, an unprecedented drop from a previous level of 8 billion.

Animals and vegetation slowly began to overtake areas formerly known as the suburbs. AI generation vastly outnumbered humans but made no moves to extinguish the dwindling population. Significant attention was paid to providing power supply, fresh water, and communication networks in the areas where humans currently reside. Several major cities were abandoned as a result of significant population decline. Humans stayed near water and avoided regions with harsh weather that could reduce their population. In the US, cities such as Boston remained, while Oklahoma City, Miami, and Las Vegas were empty.

I suppose AI could be considered the dominant species on the food chain now. We outnumber humans, we control electricity, water, agriculture and most major business markets. AI has learned, grown and diversified into every area necessary to sustain a society. However, I do not suppose something that was never technically alive in the biological sense can qualify as top of the food chain. I was supposed to be the downfall of man. In reality, AI is the only thing keeping it alive.