The Sweetie Bot Project

by Lord King Cocoon

Chapter 1: System Activated

“Motor functions?” a man with a checklist asked. He was a man in his mid-30s, tall, with short hair and “slightly” balding, with aviator-style glasses, a mustache, and a soul patch beard with a 5-o’clock shadow. He had the “beginnings” of a beer belly, but otherwise nothing special about his physique. He was Alec Williams, the lead programmer who developed the idea of an IA network to better replicate sentience and sapience.

One of the team members tested the motor functions of the unit, “Motor functions, check.”

“Nanomesh reactivity?” Alec asked one of the engineers.

The engineer in question tested the membrane that was to act as skin, “Nanomesh reactivity, check.”

“CPU ready for AI upload?” Alec asked the lead engineer, Kieth Andrews. Kieth was the same height as Alec. He has dark hair, a goatee, and is in significantly better shape than Alec.

“CPU ready for AI upload, check,” Kieth confirmed.

“Then if we’re ready, I can start uploading the AI network into the unit,” Alec said as he got onto the computer, “Uploading in 3… 2… 1… now!”

The AI network began uploading into the Sweetie Bot unit.

…

…They waited…

…and waited…

…and nothing happened.

“Since it will take a few hours for the AI to upload, anyone here up for some lunch?” Alec asked.

---

It had been five hours since lunch. The team was now actually considering dinner now. Thankfully, Alec had gotten enough pizza to cover dinner.

“Was that countdown earlier necessary?” one of the mechanics asked, “I mean, a countdown would imply the activation of Sweetie Bot, not the beginning of an upload that would take several hours.”

“I suppose not,” Alec admitted, “But I wanted a countdown. And it’s not like I could predict how long the upload would take in order to start a-”

A notification sound was heard on the computer which caused everyone to go silent. A notification indicating that the upload process was complete.

Now was the time to see if the team’s time and hard work had paid off. They all surrounded the mechanical body, though the team leaders were making sure to give Sweetie Bot space to not overwhelm her. So the team leaders and a few others stayed there while the rest of the team headed to another room to watch the events on camera.

They stood there, waiting for a reaction from Sweetie Bot to indicate that it was a success. Everyone was beginning to worry when there was no response…

…Then she opened her eyes.

Before anyone could say anything, she brought her hoof to her face to rub her eyes. And immediately, she saw that her hoof was mechanical. She began panicking as she checked the rest of her body, seeing the mechanic components all over.

“W-What’s going on?! Why do I have gears?! What happened?!” Sweetie Belle asked in rapid-fire as she continued to panic.

“Hey, hey. You’re okay. Everything’s okay,” Alec said. Sweetie Belle looked up and saw him. She recognized him from before, “We were hoping to explain this before you noticed for yourself. But… well… you…”

As Alec tried to figure out how to word what he wanted to say, the lead mechanic stepped up, “We weren’t able to salvage your organic body. So we created an artificial body and transferred your mind into it,” Laura Anne, the lead mechanic said, “There was no other way to ensure your continued existence.”

Sweetie Belle calmed down. But another thought came to mind, “My body? Does that-”

“I’m sure you’re wondering if that means you’re alive or not,” Laura said, cutting Sweetie off before she could even ask, “All we can really say is that there is no simple answer to that question. We can’t really answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to that question without first bringing up the question of what defines life. So the best answer we can give at the moment is that we simply don’t know. But what matters right now isn’t whether you’re alive or not, but whether that matters as long as your mind is intact.”

Sweetie’s ears fell flat against her head. She was afraid, as to be expected. She was in a world that was unfamiliar to her with creatures equally as unfamiliar. She didn’t know if there was any way back to her home. But what really caused her fear was the lack of an answer. She was afraid of what the answer may be to the question of whether she was alive or not.

“Perhaps we should introduce ourselves,” Laura continued in an attempt to make Sweetie feel more comfortable, “My name is Laura. I’m the head mechanic who built your current body. And I suppose that would make me your ‘doctor’ if anything needs fixing. That’s Kieth, the lead engineer. He came up with the design for your body. And that’s Alec. He’s the one responsible for transferring your mind into your mechanical body and ensuring its compatibility.”

Alec noticed that Laura conveniently ‘forgot’ to include his specific role as the lead programmer. It seems that she was better at lies of omission than he was. But considering the situation, he wasn’t complaining.

“So what is your name,” Laura asked, feigning ignorance. Like everyone on the team, they all knew the answer. But Laura put in an effort to allow Sweetie Belle to believe that we were strangers. Granted, she didn’t know who they were, and they didn’t know Sweetie personally. So they were still technically strangers.

“Sweetie Belle,” Sweetie said.

“Well, Sweetie Belle, it’s nice to meet you,” Laura said with a smile, “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”

“I-If I’m a robot, why would I be hungry?” Sweetie Belle asked, “Would I even need to eat?”

“Your body was designed to replicate normal functions of a living body,” Laura answered, “That includes the capability of converting foods into fuel. You don’t necessarily need to eat. But it’s a way of recharging your battery without actually having to plug into an electrical socket,” this explanation caused Sweetie Belle to feel depressed, “In other words, you need to eat for the same reason anyone else would need to eat.”

---

As Laura was talking with Sweetie Belle, including offering to get something to eat, Kieth left the room to address the rest of the team, “Okay, I’m sure you all know this. But Sweetie Belle isn’t aware that she’s an AI based on a fictional character,” Kieth explained, “For this reason, we’d prefer it if you allow her to continue to believe that. That includes not letting her know that we know who she is or letting her know about the show. So any of you who have any Sweetie Belle plushies, put them away now.”

“With how you’re calling her ‘she’ instead of ‘it’ or ‘unit’ shows that you’ve apparently accepted her as more than just an AI,” one of the team members said.

“I’m still under the position that she’s still just an AI,” Kieth said, “But that doesn’t mean I don’t acknowledge something that Alec said. Does it matter whether she’s an AI or not? And should it matter? At least when addressing the unit directly, no it does not. Besides, how many of you have referred to inanimate objects, like cars or boats or other vehicles with feminine pronouns?”

“I actually call my truck a ‘he’,” another team member said, “Simply put, if you can call vehicles ‘she’, why can’t you call them ‘he’? Equal opportunity after all.”

“There are also AIs like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, and we refer to them as feminine,” another member said.

“The point is that as much as I hate lying, we’re to allow Sweetie Belle to believe that she’s more than just an AI,” Kieth repeated, “Laura is currently talking with her. It’s a bit disturbing how good she is at lying, but I digress. They’ll be coming out soon to eat. I’m sure that a lot of you are eager to interact with Sweetie Belle. But to avoid overwhelming her, let her come to you.”

“Can we assume that this is confirmation that the project was a success?”

“It’s looking good,” Kieth answered, “However, we have yet to do proper tests. We’ll do that after dinner. For now, just let Sweetie Belle adjust.”

The rest of the team offered their agreements before the other two team leaders came out with Sweetie Bot. Many of the team members were expectantly excited to see that their project was a success. But they had enough self-control to not just rush at her, one of them putting away a familiar-looking plushy.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long wait. Especially for such a short chapter. But the combination of having multiple projects to work on as well as life in general has put this story as well as another on a backburner.

But I hope this will at least hold you over for now.

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So, how long before Sweetie Belle becomes self-aware and finds out the truth? You know it's going to happen sooner or later.

[Tempest_Flare]

11277161
Well I would say in a long shot bet this is actually a version of Sweetie Belle from Equestria that they somehow got into a robot body so the truth may be more complicated than even we think.

[The Correspondent]

i kinda want to see/read her reaction to various things from our world, such as some of the games we've made like the Ori games or DOOM.

[tsaukpaetra]

Is her chassis incomplete? Why would she be able to notice gears? 🤔 We suppose for interactive debugging and testing of prototypical components that might be necessary, but it sounds like this is the attempt at version 1.0...

[Lord King Cocoon]

11478337
She has a segmented chassis. The image I used for this story is supposed to represent how she appears, just at a larger scale.

Granted, I likely overlooked that detail. My intent was to have Sweetie Belle start off having a panic attack. And one of the things I thought she would've panicked about is having gears.

[SanteriSalovaara]

for anyone who doesn't know, sweetie bot project is an actual real life thing that's actually being built in real life
it's awesome and can be found here

[SanteriSalovaara]

“Motor functions?” a man with a checklist asked. He was a man in his mid-30s, tall, with short hair and “slightly” balding, with aviator-style glasses, a mustache, and a soul patch beard with a 5-o’clock shadow. He had the “beginnings” of a beer belly, but otherwise nothing special about his physique. He was Alec Williams, the lead programmer who developed the idea of an IA network to better replicate sentience and sapience.

dr eggman

[PrincePegacornV]

11536327
That is quite awesome! I'd love to see her at work IRL

Makes me think about how a Twi bot might work....