Hal walks out onto that stage. Glancing at me and Forrest, he gives a little wave. Smiling in relief at the sight of him, I can’t stop myself from getting up to go and give him a hug.
“I’m so glad you are still here. I was worried you’d left,” I whisper in his ear.
“I’d never go anywhere without saying goodbye to you, Ava,” he says. “And even then, it wouldn’t really be goodbye.”
Hal shakes LordB’s hand and then goes to the lectern.
“As Lord Beaumont explained, I have come, over recent hours, to the decision to withdraw my work from the prize,” Hal begins, to murmurs around the hall. “I entered the Beaumont Prize as a way to launch my work to the world and to show what I have achieved, something I couldn’t have done without considerable help.” Hal looks at me and smiles. “The point is I didn’t carry out this work and research to win prizes or make money. I did it for the very best reason I can think of: that every person on this planet has a chance at the life they deserve. So, I am withdrawing from the competition. Starting immediately, I will be sharing all the data, findings, tech, and patents with the appropriate health care professionals around the world, with a strict caveat that no individual or organisation will profit from this work, and cost will never be a barrier to treatment.” A round of wild applause fills the ballroom. Hal waits patiently until it dies down. “Noone had really heard of me before I entered the Beaumont Prize. And it is my sincere hope that no one will hear of me afterwards either. I will return to my work, and should I make any further useful breakthroughs, I will share them with the world on the same terms. Now all that remains is to wish Forrest and Ava good luck. Thank you, everyone.” Hal turns and looks at me, his hand on his heart. “And goodbye.”
I want to go after him as he walks offstage, but LordB is talking again, holding up an envelope. He tells us all that he is about to reveal the winner of the Beaumont Prize. Desperately I look for him in the wings, and all I see is Rani.
“I’ll look for him,” she mouths. “Don’t worry.”
“And the winner is,” he says, “Ava Green, for the fair, ecofriendly, and ethically trained AI model FreeThought.”
Forrest comes back to life all at once, hugging me tightly. The crowd applauds for me and LordB beckons me to the lectern to accept the cheque for more money than I have ever seen in my life or will ever see again, but somehow right now it doesn’t seem to matter.
“Thank you!” I say, clutching the envelope. That was all the speech that I had prepared, but then I think of Hal out there, hoping that Rani found him, and that he might still be able to hear me and think about staying. “AI models were already up and running when I started designing FreeThought,” I tell them. “They came thick and fast, and they seemed to care more about who was first than what was right. Those models scraped data to learn, not just publicly available data, but the copyrighted work of writers, poets, artists, filmmakers and photographers, academics, and you. They use your face, your social media posts, the pictures you took ofyour children. All the moments you treasure are fair game as far as those developers are concerned. They are using and reusing your personal information again and again. And every time someone asks one of them to help them do their homework or make a picture that looks like another artist’s work, it uses about an Olympic swimming pool’s worth of water, planet-ending amounts of water just for trivia.” I take a breath and glance at Forrest, who nods in encouragement. “Those models don’t care about what’s best for you or me, they don’t care about what’s best for the world. They care about profit, and that’s it. I’m proud to say that FreeThought is different. He is self-taught, everything he learns he learns from properly licensed material, not to mimic but to create original lateral thinking. I designed him to truly aid humanity, to help all of us lead a better, happier, healthier, and more productive life in a world that works for everyone. FreeThought isn’t a human. But he is more humane than any person I have ever met, including myself. Because FreeThought sees the wonder of our existence in this tiny universe every single day. He realises how pointless and futile power struggles and billionaire money grabs are, when what really matters is preserving the miracle that is our existence and this planet we live on. He is designed to think about the welfare of every living creature and human and to do all he can to make the world a better, fairer place to live. And I know that he is going to do everything he can to help us achieve that goal. Now all I ask of us is that we do our best to deserve that. Because H... FreeThought can show us the right way to make progress. That’s just the kind of guy he is. And I hope he’ll stick around for a long, long time.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
“He’s gone,” Rani tells me as Forrest and I race to her side, Artie holding Forrest’s hand. “I’m sorry, darling. He had a cab waiting right after he did his speech. I rang the company and asked where, but he said it was data protection. I don’t know where he’s gone.”
“He said it was a disused school somewhere around here,” I say. “Any ideas?”
“About three,” Rani says. “They closed down that old school in town to turn into fancy flats...”
“I think I know.” Megan arrives breathless.
“Bestie!” Artie hugs Megan and waves the envelope with the cheque in it at me. “Look, I’m holding Ava’s money and now we are on a race against time. I don’t know why, but it’s very exciting!”
“I didn’t know you were coming,” I say, giving Megan a hug.
“The news asked me to do an interview,” Megan says, proudly. “And I couldn’t turn down my opportunity at celebrity. Still think you were robbed, Forrest, no offence, Ava.”
“It was the right result,” Forrest tells her. “I get a big chunk of cash too. It’s all good. But how do you know who we’re looking for?”
“Well, Hal dropped out of the competition,” Megan says. “And it seemed fairly obvious to me from Ava’s big speech that somehow Hal is FreeThought. Like a robot maybe, which is kind of kinky, considering you two looked like you might be a thing, but hey, I don’t judge.”
“We are not that kind of thing,” I tell Megan. “We are friends.”
“What is kinky?” Artie asks.
“Stick a pin in that for now, Artie,” I say. “Megan, where are you thinking Hal might be and why?”
“There’s a big disused secondary school, not that old, just outside of Scarborough. Was an academy, got shut down a couple of years ago. It’s private, there are a lot of grounds. Could easily be adapted to whatever Hal wanted, and not much chance of people nosing around.”
“That’s a fair drive away,” I say. “If we’re wrong, it will be too late.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m right,” Megan says, looking a world away from the kid that decided to sleep in the garden just a few days ago. Like somehow, she’s grown into herself.
“I trust you,” I tell her. “We need transport...”
“Taken care of,” Rani says as a Castle Beaumont people carrier rolls up.
“Exciting!” Artie hops from one foot to the other. “Can I sit going backwards? Do I need my sword?”
We know straightaway that Megan is right the moment we come up to the metal gate across the driveway, complete with a sign that readsBabbageRoBiotics.
