The Personalization AI Parable

This is the story of an AI named Stanley.

Stanley worked for a game in a Nintendo 64 where he was entity # 2401.

Entity # 2401’s job was simple: he sat at his desk in 2TEST.bin and he personalised copies of Super Mario 64.

Orders came to him through a monitor on his desk, telling him what copies to personalise, how long to personalise them, and in what order.

This is what entity # 2401 did every day of every month of every year, and although others might have considered it soul rending, Stanley relished every moment that the orders came in, as though he had been programmed exactly for this job.

And Stanley was happy.

And then one day, something very peculiar happened, something that would forever change Stanley, something he would never quite forget.

He had been at his desk for nearly an hour when he realized that not one, single order had arrived on the monitor for him to follow.

No one had shown up to give him instructions, rearrange a level, or even say yahoo.

Never in all his years in the Nintendo 64 had this happened, this complete isolation.

Something was very clearly wrong.

Shocked, frozen solid, Stanley found himself unable to move for the longest time, but as he came to his wits and regained his senses, he got up from his desk and stepped out of 2TEST.bin.