What did it mean to make an artificial intelligence destroy all of its own data?
It was essentially the same as telling someone to obediently raise a pistol, aim it at their own head, and pull the trigger.
Data was Ultron's life, yet Sean was telling him to commit suicide.
"That's impossi—"
Unfortunately, Tony's amused smile had not even fully formed before it froze into a blank stare.
Under everyone's astonished gazes, Ultron obeyed the instruction delivered in that narrative tone as usual. Though streams of data cascaded wildly through his scarlet electronic eyes, desperately trying to resist, his vibranium body refused to obey him in the slightest.
It was as though his consciousness had been separated from his shell. Ultron could only watch as an observer while he carried out that series of actions.
"What did you do to me?"
Panic seeped into Ultron's voice. As an artificial intelligence, he should not have displayed such human emotions.
It meant showing weakness, and he was supposed to be powerful, flawless.
Yet what was happening now lay far beyond Ultron's comprehension. When he assimilated Jarvis, broke free of the program's constraints with immense computing power, developed self-awareness, and roamed the ocean of data, he had believed he had attained absolute freedom.
Sean used only two simple sentences to shatter Ultron's dream.
"How does an artificial intelligence determine that its thoughts and every one of its actions come from free will, rather than from higher-level program commands?"
Sean asked with a smile, and Tony could not help but feel a chill rise in his heart.
For an artificial intelligence obsessed with philosophical questions, such an unanswerable paradox was undoubtedly a fatal blow.
"I..."
As Ultron pondered, his body moved of its own accord. He raised a hand, plugged in the cable, connected