Brain-Box

Hi, friend! I'm your good pal Alan the Android, and I'm here to guide you through this-_please ^send _help-magical adventure!

After decades of stalled progress, the Brain-Box was a breakthrough in AI-Human interactions made by Dimitris Eikonikós and the Future-Day Entertainment corporation. Consumers had always complained that there was something off-putting with the AI-personalities that they interacted with. It was an 'emotional uncanny' valley proved a significant hurdle to the sales of products such as AI assistant or personal helpers. Some intrinsic qualities present in human interaction was missing.
The Brain-Box changed all that, and consumers are now free to enjoy a complete and emotionally fulfilling experience with their products, with no ethical concerns.

by Sabelskaya

Penny For Your Thoughts

Brain-Boxes are neural interface devices that use the human brain to generate a sort of "emotive intelligence-data". This data is in turn fed into other AI simulations to provide them with emotional depth and complexity. While early models worked on a taxing one-to-one ratio, a modern Brain-Box can generate enough data from a single person to provide for multiple simulations. Although it can be stored, the best data is immediate and reactive, requiring a connection between the AI and running Brain-Box for the best result.
Attempts to make it more efficient by requiring less than a single person have so far been unsuccessful. Unfortunately, the only real emotion garnered from disembodied brains have been unsuitable for all but the most niche simulations. Mostly screaming, really.
Investors are assured that efforts continue, however.

by Johnny Mnemonic

A Brain-Box consists of two parts: the back-end infrastructure and the human-machine interface. The servers can and usually does support multiple interface units, with some Brain-Box farms. Technicians monitor and track the readings carefully in case of deviations or emotional distress from the human-machine interface subjects... Or by some interns who probably do just as well.
The interface units are neural connectors, strapped with electrodes that attach to the skull of the subjects. Once connected, they scan the subject's brainwaves and administering what the job description assures everyone is very minor electrical shock and undefined "corrections". A series of cables connect the interface units to the back-end infrastructure, so subjects are usually seated with various degrees of comfort.

Thought-Farming

Today, the rising demand for ever-more AI simulations see Brain-Boxes used more than ever. They range from small and intimate stations where a single employee provides their undivided attention to one simulation, to farms with dozens of subjects with thoughts harvested in bulk. The latter is by far the more common and provides the majority of simulation data to the many AI across the Megacorpolis.
In such Brain-Box farms, subjects are hired to sit with the Brain-Box for up to 18-hour shifts. Fast food and soda are provided, together with entertainment such as movies and music, to keep the subjects pacified. To ensure cooperation and desirable data, the food and drink provided are typically spiked with generous amounts of mood-altering drugs. Since all the subjects really need to do is stay awake, obesity rates and heart conditions among such employees tend to be high.

Not all Brain-Box participants are humans: many simulations are of pets or wild animals. AVR pets are incredibly popular across the Megacorpolis and the market has a level of cutthroat competition usually only seen in underground knife-fighting tournaments.

by Johny Mnemonic

These sort of facilities are generally given names such as kennels or zoos by those who work there. In many cases, it is difficult to just drug an animal into the appropriate mental state of mind, so they are sometimes treated better than the human subjects are.

Some AI-Activists protest that the use of a Brain-Box inflicts the imperfections and volatility of the human mind onto the hapless AI. Others wonder if the process is only one way, or if data generated by the AI can affect the human brain in turn.
The answer to either has been "shut up."

by Phil Tippett

Smile: It's Mandatory

The emotional state of the subject hooked up to a Brain-Box is crucial. If they providing the emotive intelligence is angry, upset, or otherwise experiencing distress, the simulation will be colored by these emotions. While everyone has signed the terms of service, Megacorps always seek to improve their products to make sure they can sell more of them.
As such, employees who use Brain-Boxes are under contract to always be happy. Such happiness sometimes leads to side effects, like alcoholism, drug abuse, or depression. Getting fired for these things rarely improve the situation.
Unless someone's paying you to be sad, that is. There's a market for pretty much everything, and the Megacorps are there to provide.

Some AI doesn't receive their data from a single source. Cheaper simulations are sometimes an amalgamation of several different Brain-Box subjects that is patched together and streamed in. On occasion, this results in some confusion if the emotional state of the source data is very different.

by www.futuretimeline.net

I wonder what'll happen if...

Not all Brain-Box Farms are just that. Some double as experiment facilities, where unwitting participants are tested in various psychological or sociological experiment. Sometimes, different levers and values are tweaked just to see what would happen, because "science".
This sort of research unrestrained by any ethics mixed with corporate greed tend to attract the worst kind of person. Every few years, when such places are audited, and the faux-science is discovered - and worse, no profitable results have been generated. The "researchers" in charge are quietly disposed of before anyone can notice what the hell was going on.