ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE RICH MEN

The Year 2045

It is funny how insignificant and small everything always seems from above. We arrived from a bright and clear sky over a quiet and calm Eastern European city. There was no indication of fighting: no ruin, no corpse, no damage to be seen. The city looked as beautiful as it did originally, but quieter. Nature had resumed where it normally could. Vast pastures stretched as far as the eye could see where cattle were lying in the open air. There was very little traffic. The few people in the streets appeared to be very old, and they were all accompanied by men and women with pale faces and strange gazes, cyborgs. When we emerged from our flying engines like aliens, everyone stared at us for a long time until a cyborg Asian woman walked towards us with a broad smile on her artificial face, her gaze staring into the void around us.

"Colonel Leszczyński," she exclaimed in the most human feminine voice, reading perfectly the name on my uniform.

My badge showed my rank. She had addressed me in the language of the country where we had landed. So far, artificial intelligence didn't impress me.

"Good morning," I began in the same language. "Could we speak to your leader?"

"There is no leader. You can talk to me or anyone else, it's all the same."

"Very well," I said simply, turning back to the general who started to walk in my direction. "Could we settle down somewhere quiet to talk?" I added once the general was standing beside me.

"Would sitting on a bench in the nearby park be appropriate for you?" She asked, pointing at a nearby park before adding, "Unless you prefer somewhere more traditionally adequate to discuss with someone of your status."

I turned to the general to translate the cyborg's suggestion. He nodded then he addressed the cyborg directly in English.

"Do you speak Mina or English?" he asked the cyborg seriously.

He was right. After all if those beings were intelligent enough to know how to read a name like mine correctly and recognise the symbol of my rank on my uniform, they could most likely communicate in several languages.

"I have no knowledge of a language called Mina," she replied in perfect English and added, "But, yes, we can continue in English. Do you have any preference for accents?"

The general and I simultaneously sketched a smile. He answered for both of us:

"The one you have suits us perfectly. It really doesn't matter to us."

The general turned to our men to indicate with a simple gesture to those who appointed to remain at their position near the aircrafts to remain there while those who had been designated to explore the place could begin the inspection.

"Talking to you in the park will be fine with us," he then exclaimed to the cyborg, turning back to her.

The general and I followed the cyborg toward the park.