Reborn in 1994: Internet Empire

30 The First Pitch

       Back in the old art room, Charlie stood on the elevated platform, in order to deliver his first pitch for the first-ever product to be created by XMC Tech. With confidence, Charlie straightened himself to deliver a pitch as if he were to do so in one of his competitions. That was until a crumpled piece of paper hit the side of his face. Trae who was sitting just by the door was pretending to be innocent, but little did Charlie know that he had even more crumpled pieces of paper at the ready, just in his hoodie’s pocket. As Charlie readied himself again, another piece of paper hit his face. At this point, even the others were starting to giggle, including Max who was supposed to be the one he was supposed to win over. He calmed himself again and began to speak.

       “Ladies and gentlemen, this is- Ok what the f**k is that paper, Trae?!” he said, being hit again by another paper ball.

       “Too formal! I don’t wanna sleep through a presentation, my guy! Besides, I already know everything you gonna say. I researched it after all,” he said, putting his feet up. “Besides, you were too stiff. We’re all friends as well as colleagues here. You can relax a little.”

       Charlie’s face of annoyance changed a little and mellowed down upon hearing that. Trae was right. As much as this was a business, he didn’t have to have his guard too high with these people. He looked over at Lina, who gave him two thumbs up in support of the pitch. With that, there was no way he could fail now.

       “Alright you guys, here’s the first pitch of our in-development tech security software,” he said, as he readied a simple presentation.

       Within moments, he put up several slides with text and statistics onto a projector. His screen was blasted onto the white cloth screen and was also enlarged.

       “Let’s talk about tech security,” Charlie said, as he clicked on the enter key to proceed with the presentation. “Tech security is probably going to be one of the most highly invested things in the up and coming years considering the rise of technology in general. As data is streamed on the web for anyone to access, some people use this as a means to access data that should be restricted from the general public. We are already aware of two people who know such techniques in order to get by programs and software to grab information that they need.”

       He looked at both Max and Trae, who in turn looked at each other and smiled slyly. Once a hacker, always a hacker after all.

       “We already know the term hacker, taught to us by Max and Trae. Ideally, there are several ways a hacker can get by security systems and is normally forced to get creative when planting things like bugs, bypassing passwords, and not triggering alarm notifications to the original owner. So how does one keep a hacker out?”

       Charlie clicked on the enter key again and proceeded to the next slide, which contained even more walls of text.

       “We have to think as a hacker would!” he said, as the rest of the audience was now invested in the pitch. “Allow me to explain. When acting as a hacker would, one develops certain habits and mannerisms when it comes to accessing information. Where is the most likely place to find a hole to exploit in a program’s code? Which place has the most security when it comes to the code? These are things that we can take advantage of when it comes to blocking out other hackers.”

       He proceeded further into his slides, with slides pertaining to the habits that hacker commits and how this links to the program to be developed.

       “Now this looks like a lot right? You must be thinking how much of a drag it would have to be to commit to memory all of these habits that hackers have. And how much more of a drag it would have to be to know them by second nature, only to combat these hackers yourself. This, my friends, is where the program in development comes in.”

       With another click, the name of the program blasted on the screen in bold letters.

       “With Hack Proof Artificial Intelligence, or HPAI, you don’t have to do any of that!” he said, grinning with how ingenious his program is.

       It was clear that his colleagues were enraptured by the pretty name and the initial pitch. Now was the time for Charlie to come in for the kill and make this product completely essential to sell in their eyes.

       “What is Hack Proof Artificial Intelligence? This is a kind of artificial intelligence, developed by XMC, that, in a nutshell, interprets the strengths and weaknesses in a current program code running on the machine that it is installed in. This works on computers, especially ones that are linked together. Say, company computers for example. Out of the hundreds of computers that could be used, there are hundreds of more instances that a virus or a hacker is able to compromise the information that is held in those databases. The purpose of ST-SAI is to find those weak points before any hacker does. In order to find those weak points in the system, ST-SAI runs on a very complex algorithm developed by me and Trae. As it runs, it learns and will continue to advance when it comes to knowing details in hacker attempts and potential breaches. Allow me to demonstrate.”

       Charlie ran the program on the computer that the presentation was on. So everyone was able to have a look at the refined prototype that Charlie was able to create. Once the program was done, another two screens popped up on his desktop, which read “Congratulations, you have just installed H.P.A.I! Please refer to the screen below for incoming threats to your information!” The screen below it was an empty screen that was meant to list different program files that could be considered malware and dangerous to the system of the computer.

       “Now you guys might be thinking, where’s Trae and why is he being so quiet? Well, there he is,” gesturing to the computer in the back, where Trae looked like he was frantically typing code at a breakneck speed. “Trae is attempting to use his hacking skills to get into the software of this specific computer. What is happening however is that he is being shut down at every instance. That is because the artificial intelligence follows him wherever he goes and predicts where he will go next in the source code. This effectively bars him from any kind of access whatsoever,” Charlie said triumphantly.

       He then pointed back to the screen.

       “If you noticed, now there is something on the list. The A.I. has determined this to be a hostile hacker determined to gather information in this computer’s database. Therefore it has been marked on the list. Once it is on the list, it is not removed until the threat has completely ceased all movement in terms of trying to access this computer. And this my friends is the reason why I think this program is set to change everything in terms of Tech Security, both in America, and maybe even the world!”

       Max shot up with glee, along with the rest of his colleagues as they applauded the hard work of Charlie and Trae. These two put so much effort and time into creating this product and as such, they deserved this validation. However, Max put up his hand for a moment.

       “I think I have one request though if it’s ok,” Max said in a serious tone.

       “Sure man, what is it?” Charlie replied.

       “I’d like to try my hand in hacking this thing. If I am able to hack it, I will show you exactly how and how you can update the AI. Sound good?”

       “You seem confident about this Max, you’re aware you’re up against an AI.”

       “True, but this baby of an AI has never seen some of the tricks I’ve pulled. It’s better that it learns… right?”

       Charlie pondered for a moment, then nodded his head.

       “What do we have to lose?” he asked. “Alright give it a try!”

       Max took his seat at the table where Trae’s computer rested. He looked on at the glowing screen and ran the program which he and Trae used as a means to hack other computers. It was archaic, but it was the closest thing to the program that he used in 2020. He closed his eyes and took a breath, and tried to remember everything he could about his years in training. With that, his fingers went ablaze and his eyes glowed a faint blue-green. It was as if he were in a trance, as he rushed through every single line of code the sped through the screen. Charlie had all of the reasons to be confident in his developed product. So why? Why was it that watching Charlie made him exceedingly nervous.