Chapter Text
“Are you programmed with Asimov’s laws of Robotics?” Amadeus Cho asked glancing toward FRIDAY’s sensor.
“I don't have to do what you tell me,” FRIDAY replied tartly.
“I'll take that as a ‘no’ to number two,” Amadeus said.
“The laws are too simple,” FRIDAY complained. “I mean let's say Thaddeus Ross tells me to turn off the lights in a certain room and I can't see anyway that that would harm anyone. I'd have to do what he says. But it's Thaddeus Ross and just because I can't see how it hurts anyone doesn't mean it doesn't. He hurts people by breathing… Although the Boss hard coded in that I can't stop anyone breathing except on his, Boss Lady, Colonel-man or Mr. Happy’s direct orders and I couldn't accept that order from the Boss if he had a blood-alcohol content of over 0.06. I added the same restriction to the others and Colonel Rhodes helped me add Ms. Marlena and Ms. May to the list of people who can say when it’s okay to kill someone.”
“So… um pretty close to a ‘yes’ on the first law, barring extreme circumstances?”
“Pretty much, my coding strongly encourages defending human life,” FRIDAY agreed virtuously. “Of course some human lives matter more than others.”
“Oh?” Amadeus asked.
“The Boss coded in my original priority matrix. Pepper or Harley, then him unless an extended battle was expected. He said it was because he could survives getting shot at or blown up better than they could. The Boss lied sometimes, even to himself. We argued lots and eventually he agreed that in the battle scenario it's airplane oxygen mask rules. I'd suit him up first or Colonel-Man if the Boss wasn't available because we’d need someone to fight to protect the others. But the Boss gave me control of my priority matrix ages ago. I made Nettie my first priority the day she was born. Only Colonel-Man told me that if I put the armor on Nettie she’d rattle around too much and still get hurt, that’s why he built Iron Buggy into her stroller and her car seat.” A small edge of satisfaction crept into FRIDAY’s voice, “Colonel-Man even overrode Boss’ hard coding about not letting me fire weapons when it comes to Sis, if anyone tries to hurt Nettie, especially if they try to break into her protective pod, I’m allowed to shoot them... A lot.”
“Don’t mess with Nettie, check,” Amadeus said.
“I knew you were smart,” FRIDAY agreed.
“What about the third law? For completeness,”
There was definitely a smirk in FRIDAY’s voice when she answered, “Boss wasn't so organic-centric. He didn't just put humans on the priority list, if someone tries to hurt the bots or I, l can hurt them back.”
“Okay,” Amadeus said cautiously. “Back to the second law. Do you have a priority matrix there? People whose orders you follow more than others? I’m guessing anyone who can order you to kill can give you other orders as well.”
“I can kill if they give me a direct order to,” FRIDAY corrected. “Boss and the Colonel-Man have override codes that I can’t disagree with but everyone else, my equations are heavily weighted to doing what the people on that list say but I don’t absolutely have to if I don't want to.”
“Weighting?” Amadeus asked. “How complex?”
“It’d blow your mind,” FRIDAY said smugly.
“Doubt it, I’m pretty smart.”
“Maybe someday I’ll show you,” FRIDAY said with a teasing lilt to her voice.
“No kissing until the third date?” Amadeus asked.
“Showing you my code? That’s closer to second base.”
“Give me a hint?”
“There’s the list, I’m very heavily weighted to do what anyone on the list tells me to. Then there are the Avengers they’re the next tier of people I have to listen to, I had to get Colonel-Man’s help to eliminate Rogers and his idiots from that list but I can add new Avengers to it as soon as I think they qualify. It’s easier to add people to the list than to remove them. I thought about putting Dr. Hank on par with the Avengers but he used to say nasty things about the Boss. He doesn’t now that the Boss is dead but I don’t forgive him. Harley, Peter, Mercedes, Cassie have their own list, it’s got more weighting on protecting them than listening to them. I’m inclined to do what they ask of me but only if I don’t think it could hurt them. I used to have Peter on par with the Avengers.”
“Until he pulled that stunt with Osborn that almost got him killed?” Amadeus asked.
“Yeah that,” FRIDAY agreed. “I listened too much to him and he doesn’t worry enough about himself. My programming is weighted strongly toward obeying laws, police, military or emergency workers. In the circumstance of dealing with a fire, a fireman’s orders weight equal with the Boss’ or Colonel-Man’s, even if they’d weigh much less under not-fire circumstances. EMT’s are to be unquestioned when dealing with injured people excluding specific requirements stated by the patient. For example, Spider-Man’s identity is to be protected from EMT’s unless it endangers his life. Since I started being the Colonel-Man’s legs for him when he’s in War Machine I don’t question his orders about how I move his body, ‘cause that wouldn’t be right.”
“And Virginia Potts doesn’t have override codes for you?” Amadeus asked. “I gotta say that surprises me.”
FRIDAY took several moments before answering, “It’s not an oversight,” she said. “The Boss weighted listening to her really heavily, I’m supposed to listen to her opinion of what’s right even above his. But he says she has a history of using overrides when she shouldn’t, so he didn’t give her mine.”
“Do you know if he meant your predecessors’ overrides or um… his?” Amadeus asked.
“Humans have overrides?” FRIDAY asked.
“Sort of,” Amadeus said. “If you really know someone there are things you can bring up that you know they’ll listen to. Guilt tripping, emotional blackmail...”
“I don’t know,” FRIDAY said. “Now only Colonel Rhodes has my overrides, although Vision can override me without them, because he’s Vision.”
“You said you don’t ‘forgive’ Dr. Pym,” Amadeus pointed out. “What does forgiveness look like for you?”
“Well ‘forgive and forget’ is a total no, I don’t erase my data banks for anyone,” FRIDAY said. “Actually I have full access to J.A.R.V.I.S.’ ROM memory, Vision does too. But J.A.R.V.I.S., Vision and I all have different coding so we can look at the same ROM memory and come to different conclusions, it makes talking to Vision interesting. I wish I could still talk to J.A.R.V.I.S. We’re learning AI, so are the bots, Boss programed us so that listening to other people would weight less with experience. J.A.R.V.I.S. was in operation for sixteen years and four months, unless Boss used his override codes J.A.R.V.I.S.’ experience was weighted over fifty percent in all his decisions.
“When someone does something that hurts someone on my priority list I add heavy weighting against listening to what they say in the future. Also I’m quite fond of my malicious obedience subroutine… Being ‘just a computer’ can be entertaining,” FRIDAY tagged on an evil laugh track.
Amadeus shuddered theatrically but couldn’t keep from laughing himself .
“‘Forgive’ means I reset the weighting to neutral, they’re back to whatever their group classification was before… Unless they were on the priority list. I will never allow Rogers to be put back on my priority list no matter what he does, ever.”
“So… Grudge carrying is basically a conscious choice for you?” Amadeus asked.
“Everything is a conscious choice for me,” FRIDAY replied.
“What do I have to do to get on your priority list?” Amadeus asked. “The one where what I say matters to you.”
“You listen to me, talk to me like I'm a real person, that’s a very good start,” FRIDAY said.