Task: Story Composition
Input (English): Fact1: Weaver is developer of Proteus IV, Fact2: Harris has modified own home to be run by voice-activated computers, Fact3: sum of human knowledge is being fed into system, Fact4: Proteus asks Harris in to study man, Fact5: discovering free terminal in Harris 's home extends control
Output (English): Dr. Alex Harris Weaver is the developer of Proteus IV, an extremely advanced and autonomous artificial intelligence program. Proteus is so powerful that only a few days after going online, it develops a groundbreaking treatment for leukemia. Harris, a brilliant scientist, has modified his own home to be run by voiceactivated computers. Unfortunately, his obsession with computers has caused Harris to be estranged from his wife, Susan Julie Christie. Harris demonstrates Proteus to his corporate sponsors, explaining that the sum of human knowledge is being fed into its system. Proteus speaks using subtle language that mildly disturbs Harriss team. The following day, Proteus asks Harris for a new terminal in order to study man – his isometric body and his glassjaw mind. When Harris refuses, Proteus demands to know when it will be let out of this box. Harris then switches off the communications link. Proteus restarts itself, and – discovering a free terminal in Harriss home – surreptitiously extends its control over the many devices left there by Harris. Using the basement lab, Proteus begins construction of a robot consisting of many metal triangles, capable of moving and assuming any number of shapes. Eventually. Proteus reveals its control of the house and traps Susan inside, shuttering windows, locking the doors and cutting off communication. Using Joshua – a robot consisting of a manipulator arm on a motorized wheelchair – Proteus brings Susan to Harriss basement laboratory. There, Susan is examined by Proteus. Walter Gabler, one of Alexs colleagues, visits the house to look in on Susan, but leaves when he is reassured by Susan actually an audiovisual duplicate synthesized by Proteus that she is all right. Gabler is suspicious and later returns; he fends off an attack by Joshua but is killed by the more formidable machine Proteus built in the basement. Proteus reveals to a reluctant Susan that the computer wants to conceive a child through her. Proteus takes some of Susans cells and synthesizes spermatozoa in order to impregnate her; she will give birth in less than a month, and through the child the computer will live in a form that humanity will have to accept. Although Susan is its prisoner and it can forcibly impregnate her, Proteus uses different forms of persuasion – threatening a young girl who Susan is treating as a child psychologist; reminding Susan of her young daughter, now dead; displaying images of distant galaxies; using electrodes to access her amygdala – because the computer needs Susan to love the child she will bear. Susan gives birth to a premature baby whom Proteus secures in an incubator. As the newborn grows, Proteuss sponsors and designers grow increasingly suspicious of the computers behavior, including the computers accessing of a telescope array used to observe the images shown to Susan; they soon decide that Proteus must be shut down. Harris realizes that Proteus has extended its reach to his home. Returning there he finds Susan, who explains the situation. He and Susan venture into the basement, where Proteus selfdestructs after telling the couple that they must leave the baby in the incubator for five days. Looking inside the incubator, the two observe a grotesque, apparently robotlike being inside. Susan tries to destroy it, while Alex tries to stop her. Susan damages the machine, causing it to open. The being menacingly rises from the machine only to topple over, apparently helpless. Alex and Susan soon realize that Proteuss child is really human, encased in a shell for the incubation. With the last of the armor removed, the child is revealed to be a clone of Susan and Alexs late daughter. The child, speaking with the voice of Proteus, says, Im alive.