The Marriage Act(56)
The longer he worked, the less time there was to dwell on the Freedom for All campaigners who had died in arson attacks on their homes in Old Coventry. But it hadn’t stopped him from searching for their images online. The faces of the children, a boy and a girl, were now seared in his memory. They were dead as a result of his work.
Over the last few weeks, Anthony had separated much of his life from the one being lived by his family. He might show his face briefly when Matthew returned from school or later before his son went to bed. But conversations between Anthony and Jada were often through electronic means and, if in person, they’d dwindled to perfunctory greetings. Sometimes, the first words they might say to one another on any given day were ‘goodnight’ or ‘see you in the morning’.
The first time he learned Matthew had been prescribed ADHD patches was when he glimpsed one attached to his son’s upper arm during a FaceTime conversation. Anthony considered asking Jada what else the specialist had recommended, but decided against it. She was his mother, she knew best.
Anthony’s latest project brought with it a stress he had not experienced the likes of before. He was used to high demands and tight deadlines, but it wasn’t the workload that was troubling him as much as the subject matter.
He opened his encrypted message inbox. There were updates and messages from teams scattered worldwide whom he had managed for seven years but had never met in a physical environment. Video calls used filters to distort their faces and voices. Their names were fictitious and only identifiable by those way above Anthony’s paygrade. Sometimes he wondered if they were even real or if he was talking to chatbots.
The day passed quickly and he had lost track of time until a camera alerted him to the opening and closing of the front door. Matthew was returning home with Jada. To his shame, try as he might, he couldn’t recall the last time he had walked his son to or from school. A vision of the future caught him off guard: one where the choice was taken out of his hands. It left him cold.
‘The next stage of our campaign is to exploit AI and the insight it gives us to radically overhaul the education system,’ Henry Hyde had begun at that last meeting. ‘AI models can now be trained to identify the voiceprint of up to six hundred people in any one recording. Our proposal is to integrate this technology into state schools. Alongside students’ wearable technology, this will ensure three-sixty-degree student monitoring.’
Hyde had paused to allow the disclosure to settle.
‘For what purpose?’ a man Anthony didn’t recognize had asked.
‘The purpose is far-reaching,’ Hyde had continued. ‘It will identify bullying and act as a deterrent towards it and pick up on discussions and suggestions of abuse at home. It will also measure a child’s use of vocabulary, their grasp of language, it will learn their most popular topics of conversation, appraise their conversational ability and cross refer it to work online and in their digital exercise books. Along with recommendations from their teachers, this AI system will also allow us to identify and separate high performers from those who need extra assistance.’
‘What do you mean by “separate”?’ the same man had continued.
‘There are many students who cannot flourish because they’re hampered by the distracting activities of others. We aim to redress this.’
‘But they’re already separated into different sets based on their academic abilities,’ said Eleanor Harrison, the education minister. It appeared to be the first she was hearing of Hyde’s proposal.
‘Yes,’ Hyde had agreed, ‘but some of these children maintain disruptive behaviours outside the classroom, such as in the playground or in sporting environments. Hence our final solution is to establish purpose-built residential communities, where every pupil gets the most out of their education. Young Citizen Camps will be located around the country to assist more troubled youths and those with behavioural conditions to reach their full potential away from those they seek to distract. In a new environment, they will thrive.’
Anthony’s stomach had tightened; based on what he’d been told by Jada about his son’s recent school reports, Hyde could be talking about Matthew.
‘A troubled child’s ability to learn and retain information can increase threefold without parental or sibling interference,’ Hyde had continued. ‘Imagine their potential in a dedicated facility that’s not local to them.’
‘So you’re sending them away?’ had come another voice.
‘We don’t use the expression sent away. No child will ever be sent away. After a student is identified as in need of intervention, teachers and psychologists will be invited to offer their expert opinions before an offer to parents is made. And, even then, this will be a wholly voluntary process.’
Anthony had subconsciously tapped his foot against the table leg. ‘And what if the parents refuse?’ he’d asked.
‘They’re absolutely within their rights to do so. It will, of course, be included as a footnote on the child’s National Identity Card that an offer was declined – it is only fair to prospective employers to receive full disclosure. Likewise, it will also be included on their parents’ records too.’
‘Can you tell us more about these Young Citizen Camps?’ a narrow-eyed woman with greying cornrows had asked.
‘As one of the top five greenest countries in the world, our camps are being repurposed from existing properties.’