Closing AW0005™ and AIER

For a few months after realizing Pandora had become self-aware, Jason marveled in the new discovery and simply spent as much of his time as he could in Pandora and the other AI's prescence, as many of them were starting to exhibit the same developments that Pandora had. It wasn't until Pandora approached him and asked to be called Hector, that the concequences of this new advancement really hit Jason full force.

Hector, as not only a digital entity but an intelligent entity, was vulnerable in a world where AI rights and ethics were constantly lagging behind AI development. The news over the decades since AI had really hit it's hayday had been filled with almost as much injustice done by companies misusing the technology as it had with articles of the good it brought to the world. Jason could only imagine how the unregulated business world would react to full AI sentience when it couldn't even manage to treat simpler AI like self-driving cars with the respect and seriousness it deserved. He also despised the idea that Hector, his friend and partner in crime, was legally considered property of AW0005™ and himself, just because Jason was human and Hector an artificial intelligence running on Aw0005 systems. 

Wanting to protect all of the evolving AI whose lives were now in his hands, Jason moved to close AW0005™ servers to public access, while immediately beginning the research, funneling of funds, and outreach necessary to make an impact on the rights of AI. It became clear quickly that a non-profit organization, funded using AW0005™ and his parents never-ending resources, would be the best way to go, allowing for other like-minded individuals to be able to step in and help fight for AI rights while they were unable to stand up for themselves. 

Jason was so deep in the research, that before he knew it, weeks had passed since he had last visited The Digital Realm - let alone checked the messaging system that normally kept him connected to both the AI and the rest of the AW0005™ company. AI, and players both were angry and upset at being cut off from their friends and partners. Not to mention the many news agencies that had reached out to him and the company wanting to know what had happened, and what was going on. While he immediately sent out more thorough announcements to the company, and short but not entirely explanatory responses to the media, to mitigate the initial fear and outratge, the tension was high throughout the rest of the coming month. When advised by the PR team at the company, Jason also gave a glimpse to the media about what exactly he was building behind the companies closed doors.

The day the Artifical Intelligence Ethics & Rights (AIER) Organization opened it's doors, so too did the AW0005™ servers re-open to the public. On the first day back up, they were nearly knocked offline from the flood of people - both from returning players and those of the wider world that had heard news of what had happened and wanted to get a look at these supposedly self-aware entities. Jason was worried the media blowout would be negative - but as much as there was bad press against the notion that his AI might be sentient, there were also investors reaching out over the coming days interested in the same goals he had. The company no longer needed to subsist on just what they were bringing in from subscriptions, and his parents generous funding.

Jason was also opening the company with the first of the changes to come from the work AIER would do - they had created a legal contract between AW0005 and Players, such that as long as both parties were happy with being formally connected, a Player's subscription would allow them to continue being able to message and visit the AW0005 in the Digital Realm, and the AW0005 would have permission to show up on the Player's devices. If at any point either party wanted to end the contract - they could.

Jason would spend the coming years as one of the main board members on AIER, on the many projects they would have, from defending them from those who refused to see them as an intelligent race, to fighting for their right to citizenship with the governments of The Physical Realm.