Page 62 of Dark Princess Emerging
"I feel the same." As he lowered his mouth to hers again, Morelle gave herself over to the sensations.
It felt like coming home.
37
BRANDON
"This is incredible," Morelle breathed as she took in William's sprawling laboratory complex, her hand squeezing Brandon's in excitement.
Her blue eyes were wide with wonder as she scanned the rows of gleaming equipment, the wall-mounted screens, and the various setups scattered throughout the space.
William practically preened at the praise. "Most of this is custom-built," he said, gesturing at a particularly complex array of machinery. "We develop most of the tech ourselves."
"Standard human technology doesn't quite meet our needs," Kaia said as she rose to her feet and extended her hand to Morelle with a bright smile. "I'm Kaia, William's mate, but that's not why I'm here. I'm a researcher, and I just use William's space to do my work."
Brandon appreciated that Kaia hadn't explained what kind of a researcher she was. He doubted that Morelle would have understood what a bioinformatician was.
The truth was that he hadn't known about that field of study before Kaia joined the clan, and he still didn't understand exactly what she did. He wasn't in the least scientifically inclined.
"What do you research?" Morelle asked as she shook Kaia's hand.
Well, so much for that.
He knew what Kaia was researching, but most clan members were under the impression that Kaia was working with Bridget to find the secret to what made them immortals. Only the council members and Annani's family knew that she was working on deciphering Okidu's journals. If she succeeded, the clan would know how to build more cyborgs like the Odus and, as a side bonus, discover how to turn any human immortal.
Those were lofty goals that Brandon wasn't sure how to feel about. Both offered remarkable benefits but also could lead to catastrophic results.
"I'm a special type of medical researcher," Kaia said. "I combine biology, computer science, and statistics to analyze large biological data sets and use that to solve various problems in healthcare and research."
Morelle smiled and nodded, but Brandon had a feeling she understood very little of the description. "It sounds exciting," she said.
"It is." Kaia returned her smile. "Would you like a tour? I can show you where we're assembling the Perfect Match machines, which is what everyone is most excited about seeing, and I can also show you some of our other innovative projects."
Morelle glanced at Brandon. "I would love that. Do you want to come?"
"I've already seen all that, but you go ahead. I need to discuss Parker's ideas with William."
"Oh, that." She waved a dismissive hand. "I didn't understand most of it the first time you told me about it, and I doubt I'll understand more the second time around. I'd rather go with Kaia."
"Have fun." He kissed her cheek and then watched her go.
"So," William said. "I'm curious to hear Parker's ideas."
As Brandon outlined Parker's concept for the blockchain-secured, AI-driven truth verification system, he could see William's expression shifting from interest to concern to outright skepticism.
"It's an interesting idea," William said, running a hand through his perpetually disheveled hair. "But there are some serious challenges to consider."
"I figured as much." Brandon leaned against a nearby workbench. "Walk me through them in as simple terms as you can manage?"
William nodded thoughtfully. "First, let's talk about the fundamental concept of a centralized truth repository. Even with blockchain security, you're creating a single point of failure—not in terms of tech, but in terms of authority. Who decides what constitutes truth?"
"The AI would be programmed to be impartial," Brandon said, playing devil's advocate even though he deferred to William's expertise.
"And there's problem number two." William leaned against an untidy desk and crossed his arms over his chest. "Training an AI to be truly impartial is practically impossible. Every dataset we use would carry inherent biases. Even if we make the training data and algorithms completely transparent, we can't eliminate bias entirely."
"Parker suggested having the community verify the AI's impartiality."
"Which brings us to problem number three." William lifted his finger to push his antiglare glasses up his nose. "Who is this community? How do we ensure they have the expertise to evaluate AI systems? How do we prevent bad actors from gaming the verification process?" He shook his head. "Look at what happens with cryptocurrency. The technology is solid, but human nature finds ways to corrupt even the most secure systems."