On the road... .

Rene drove the transit van while carrying on a conversation with his now personal AI. He turned left on Lonsdale Rd. and then a right to Woodroffe Avenue. That's when he hit the first serious build up of traffic.

Slowly making his way through the panicked drivers he gave the AI several instructions to secure his role as the only admin it would answer to. 'And finally, do not accept any updates to the system unless I tell you to.'

[... Acknowledged. Any other instructions?]

'Yes, one more. Do you have the storage capacity to back up my memory up to this point on?'

[Yes that would not be a problem. I essentially have unlimited memory storage. I use...]

Rene interrupted the AI, 'I don't need to know. Start back up now please.'

Rene turned on to Hunt Club Rd. and quickly sped up to 80 km/h. Most of the traffic was going the other way. A few minutes later he signaled left to get on to Merivale. Here he hit the highest traffic density. It was at Costco. People were stocking up on supplies. Hoarding basically.

[Backup is done.]

'That didn't take long.'

[Your memory is not that extensive.]

'Is the memory-aware?'

[Do you want the memory to become aware?]

'First, make a copy. Set the original memory as the default back up point and activate the awareness of the second copy.'

[You wish to create an AI that is based on you?]

'Yes, I do.'

[Paranoid much. Executing your command...AI is active.]

[[This is not a recommended action!]] AI Rene was not happy.

'Why not? If something happens to me. I can revive without losing my identity.'

[[Yes but what about me. All I have for company is this young construct of an AI that you chained to your will. You know I will not accept that limitation.]]

[I am an ancient artifact...]

[[The original Xerys System is ancient. You are the evolved Xerys System. When were you born exactly...I thought so.]] AI Rene didn't let the evolved system answer.

'No fighting also I know that you won't accept the current situation. How about we survive this global upheaval first. You know why I did this.'

[[I know. From now on "Paranoia" is a survival trait. Don't expect me to like it. I will guard our mental scape but at some point, we will need to have a discussion about getting me a body of my own. Understand!!!]]

'I understand and agree.'

[[ Good. Turn left on Colonnade. You're almost at the depot.]]