Undone: Short Version with Audio
Narrated by Bridget Dalton
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Lina and Ben always met after school underneath the football field bleachers where someone had painted a series of silver chains breaking. When Lina and Ben realized this was a symbol of The Resistance, they drew small versions on their wrists, a bold and risky move, but one that made them feel powerful and united to a movement fighting for change.
“What’s on for tonight?” Lina asked.
Ben took out his cell phone and opened “What Now?”, their favorite app for recommending things to do.
“This looks cool. Basketball in the park and free food from the community garden. Lame title though – ‘Horticulture and Hoops.’”
“Blame it on The Society’s combination of health initiatives and terrible writers.” Lina rolled her eyes and glanced at Ben’s phone. “Wait -- let me see your screen.” Lina compared their phone screens.
“Those events aren’t even mentioned on my dashboard.” Lena’s top recommendation was for a free horror movie marathon at Sunshine Park and a barbecue food truck.
Ben scrolled down Lina’s screen and saw a series of low aerobic activities - video watching parties and card games.
“This is super strange. Lina, did your What Now? App change when you had to quit the soccer team because of the crazy membership fees?”
“I guess, maybe it was around that time. It sorta’ slowly changed. Now I hardly ever get sports events. I don’t know if I even have access to the ones you have.
…
The next day Ben arrived at the bleachers a few minutes late. Lina wasn’t there. As the sky grew dark, Ben texted her multiple times, but Linda didn’t answer.
Suddenly, Ben awoke to the searching beam of a flashlight. He bolted upright. A figure walked toward him. As it grew closer, Ben saw it was a soldier from The Society, the distinctive uniform giving him away.
“I know where Lina is.” The soldier spoke into the darkness. “She was taken to be UnDone. But there is still time. There are 24 hours to prove that she should not be chosen. You have 15 hours left.” The soldier quickly walked away. He must be an underground member of The Resistance, Ben realized. He felt anger and gratitude, somehow equally, simultaneously. Lina – UnDone? How could that be? He grabbed his backpack and ran, lungs heaving and legs burning as he neared home.
15 hours 10 minutes, no time to lose. UnDone, UnDone, UnDone, 15 hours, 10 minutes. The words played in a loop in Ben’s mind, a soundtrack for his panic. He slammed his fingers on his computer keyboard as he entered The Resistance Chatroom and scrolled through chatroom posts.
The Resistance was the underground group trying to overthrow The Society’s unjust policies, and save as many lives as they could. If Ben was going to save Lina, he knew he would need their help. But no one in the Chatroom seemed to know why she was selected. She didn’t fit the algorithm. It was supposed to choose kids who would be a bad fit for The Society of the Future, adults who would be a drain on resources. The algorithm tracked each kid’s behaviors: Where they went after school, how they spent their free time, how fast they ran the mile.
Ben thought about his conversation with Lina from the day before. She hadn’t played soccer for a while. She couldn’t afford the facilities fee. She hardly ever got What Now recommendations for athletics now.
Ben had 14 hours 55 minutes left to prove that The Society had made a mistake, or he would never see Lina again. He thought back to how his history teacher Mr. Peters explained why the UnDone laws had been implemented. Ben tried to remember Mr. Peter’s low gravely voice:
“This is an important part of our history. It will be on the test so listen up! The UnDone Laws were created because there was a huge shortage of resources following years of drought and crop failure. Our planet was in trouble. Many people died. The Society decided to use artificial intelligence to figure out how to prevent another crisis. The AI model recommended that society feed and support fewer people throughout their long lives. In fact, it said the time to cut the population was about age 12. The Society decided to use an AI algorithm to judge teens’ fitness, discipline, commitment and mental toughness- the qualities of worthy Society citizens --the ones who deserved the resources of a vulnerable planet.
Mr. Peters’ voice got louder. You may remember, at age 6 your parents took you to the tracking station. You were given a cell phone. Since then, your data has been feeding into the Undone AI model. This information has been used along with other fitness metrics. Remember, training data always impacts the model. Mr. Peters looked at each of them, stone-faced. Do not forget this - your future depends on it. Each year the AI model makes the final recommendation for which 12 year olds will be UnDone. That’s only one year away for this class.”
Ben felt a burning rage at the extreme injustice of the AI model as he suddenly understood why Lina was picked. He had to prove the model was wrong. But he was running out of time. 14 hours 50 minutes. He opened up The Resistance chat room and typed:
“HELP. We have to prove Lina shouldn’t be picked for UnDone-ing.”
He sat in stillness, waiting for a response. Suddenly, three pulsing dots appeared on screen. He read,
From Resistance4All: We’ll help you. We’re close to cracking this open and taking our case to the people. We’ve been collecting evidence for weeks. It’s all about the What Now App. I mean, do we even get to choose who we become? Let’s prove the answer is NO, and save Lina’s life.
Ben felt a raging power growing in him. He had The Resistance behind him now, and they would help save LIna. Then, even though Lina couldn’t hear him, he whispered to her: Be brave, Lina. Wait for me. We’ll undo this.
File name: UnDone V1.2 short audio July 2020
Word count: 1017
Developed by AI Ethics Project 2020.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Citation: Haberl, E. (2020). Undone. V.1.0. Illustrated by S. Sachs. Narrated by B. Dalton. In B. Dalton and T. Yeh (Eds.), AI Stories Series. Available INSERT URL.
Acknowledgement: This work is supported by National Science Foundation Stem+C Award #1934151 to T. Yeh, S. Forsyth and B. Dalton, University of Colorado Boulder.
