Scientific Ethics

Stark increasingly felt that this so-called Auto-responder Program was actually an Artificial Intelligence, perhaps even Ultron. He had personally watched Ultron get swallowed whole by Salomon's magic, but he had no idea how the Arcanist dealt with Artificial Intelligence. Now that he had encountered another program with such a high degree of intelligence—perhaps what was on the other end was not even a program, but a mechanical life-form—Stark found it difficult to remain calm.

After the Sokovia incident, Congress hastily passed legislation concerning Artificial Intelligence, prohibiting the deployment of overly advanced Artificial Intelligence. It also dispatched an investigative team composed of mathematicians, computer scientists, and social psychologists to Stark Industries to investigate the Artificial Intelligence developed by Tony Stark. Friday had gone to great lengths to evade the team's months-long investigation and was ultimately classified as an Artificial Intelligence capable only of completing specific tasks. Stark himself had attended several hearings maddening enough to drive anyone insane.

He could no longer be as relaxed, cheerful, and flippant as before, freely mocking the congressmen. The loss of control over Artificial Intelligence had been his gravest mistake, but that did not mean he could give up such an excellent production tool.

Without Friday, every project at Stark Industries would grind to a halt.

The smell of scorching in the air grew stronger and stronger as grease slowly seeped from the corpses' charred wounds. Even after so much time had passed, the horrific state of the crime scene remained unbearable. Tony Stark no longer wanted to stay in the ruins. He hurried outside, stopping only when sunlight shone over him again. Even with metal armor on his body and its climate-control system maintaining a constant temperature, he still felt a wave of warmth.

He knew it was psychological, but that did not stop