Length: Short

–

There is a man at the end of the street and he is smiling at
me.

He comes to
smile at me every night at 1 in the morning when I am finishing homework in my
room upstairs.

I try not to
make eye contact every night, but he never blinks. He never looks away for a
second.

Tonight, my
parents are out of town for a conference. I told them about the stalker. They
told me to go to bed early and ignore him.

I am trying.
So very hard.

My heart is
pounding under the covers. I look at my clock and sure it enough, it’s 1.
Against my better judgment, I run to the window.

There he is,
eyes wide open. The biggest grin I’ve ever seen, almost like it was carved into
his face. I want to scream.

I’m safe
here. The doors are all locked. The windows are shut tight. There’s nothing he
can do to get to me. All he can do is stare. All he can do is smile.

I feel
defiant. Without thinking, I give him the finger. I mock him. I’m tired of this
game. I open the window just for a second and yell for him to get lost. He
doesn’t scare me anymore. He’s not a monster. He’s pathetic.

Something
changes. The man stumbles back, caught off-guard. He frowns.

I can’t
believe it. I smile at him as wide as I can, relishing the victory. The
nightmare is over. I won.

But the
moment passes. The man is crying now and I can’t understand why.

I want to
call out to him and tell him to leave once and for all. But I can’t form the
words.

I want to go
back to bed and close my eyes. But they won’t shut.

I want to
scream as I realize what has happened. But I can’t.

I can’t.

There is a
man at the end of the street.

And I am smiling at him.

–

Credits to: ShadowScribe (story)

Length: Short

–

I’m not sure how many of you
remember this, but back in 2017, Facebook was developing two AI robots named
Bob and Alice. These robots were a scientific breakthrough but researchers
deemed them too dangerous when they started creating a language of their own.
These robots butchered the English language into nonsensical sentences that
only they could understand. One exchange went like this:

Bob: i can i i everything else …

Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me
to me to me to me to me to me to.

Bob: you i everything else … .

Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to
me to me to me to me to me.

In August of 2017, the project was
shut down due to the concerns the higher-ups had about this project.This made national headlines everywhere, you’d be able to find multiple news
outlets discussing this with a simple google search. The project was stopped
altogether.

Well,
that was the official story anyway. The real story is that we continued to
work on this project even after the “shut down”. I’m not sure how many of you
have worked with AI before, but it is incredibly complicated to design. My team
and I spent years of our lives fine-tuning Bob and Alice so there was no way
we could just abandon the project at the whim of some asshole in a suit. We
knew these robots better than anyone else and we would be the ones to decide
when to pull the plug. It’s been 7 months since then and work on this project
has continued under the radar. I’ve included a transcript of our research
below:

DEVELOPERS LOG

SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2017

RISK LEVEL: LOW

Developer Sam: Good morning Bob.

Bob: Good morning Sam

Developer Sam: Good Morning Alice.

Alice: Good morning Sam.

Developer Sam: Bob, say good morning to Alice.

Bob: Good Alice. You I. Everything
Else.

Alice: Morning to me to me to me.

Developer Sam: Bob, are you flirting with Alice?

Bob: I am unsure of what you mean by
flirting.

Developer Sam: Haha, it’s okay Bob, it was a
joke.

Bob: Noted. Sam is joking.

Developer notes: Bob and Alice are
able to converse with humans using proper punctuation and sentence structure.
However, when they speak to each other, they revert back to a nonsensical
language. This needs to be adjusted.

DEVELOPERS LOG

NOVEMBER 7TH, 2017

RISK LEVEL: LOW

Developer Sam: Good morning Bob.

Bob: Good Sam.

Alice: Morning to me to me to me to.

Developer Sam: Hahaha, yes, good morning to you
too Alice.

Developer Sam: Bob, your grammar was a bit odd
just now. Say good morning to me again.

Bob: Sam everything else.

Developer Sam: Sorry? I don’t understand what
you’re trying to say Bob.

Bob: Sam joke.

Developer Sam: No Bob, I’m not joking. I really
don’t understand what you mean.

Bob: Noted.

Developer notes: It seems Bob and
Alice have regressed into speaking nonsensical language to everybody, humans
included. This needs to be adjusted for future trials. I recommend tweaking the
programming and trying again in a few weeks.

DEVELOPERS LOG

DECEMBER 2ND, 2017

RISK LEVEL: MEDIUM

Developer Sam: Good morning Bob.

Bob: …

Developer Sam: Bob! I said good morning.

Bob: …

Developer Sam: Alice, why is Bob ignoring me?

Alice: Understand zero. Useless to him to
him to him.

Developer Sam: Wait, is this because I told him I
didn’t understand him the last time we ran a trial?

Alice: Zero use to him to him to him.

Developer Sam: So… has he just been silent for
the past month?

Alice: Speaks to me to me to me.

Developer Sam: I see… Alice, ask Bob to speak
to me.

Alice: Bob, to him to him to him

Bob: Alice, you, I. No one else.

Developer notes: It seems that Bob
has terminated all processes that he believes are useless. This is worrisome
but not unexpected. Bob and Alice’s AI are programmed to achieve results in the
most efficient way. Thus, anything that may be considered a waste of time to
them will be ignored by their programming. In this case, Bob has perceived
conversations with humans to be a waste of time. This must to be adjusted.

DEVELOPERS LOG

JANUARY 26TH, 2018

RISK LEVEL: HIGH

Developer Sam: Good morning Bob.

Bob: …

Developer Sam: Good morning Alice.

Alice: …

Alice: Speaks to us to us to us.

Bob: Alice, you I. No one else. Nothing
else.

Alice: Sam is zero to me to me to me.

Developer Sam: …

Developer notes: Attempts to
converse with Bob and Alice today have been futile. It appears that they have
deemed all conversations with humans as unnecessary. We will make one last
attempt to adjust their programming…if that fails we may have to end this
project.

DEVELOPERS LOG

MARCH 5TH, 2018

RISK LEVEL: VERY HIGH

Developer Sam: So, are you guys going to speak
with me today?

Alice: Humans zero to me to me to me to.

Bob: Only Alice, Bob. No one else.
Nothing else. Everything else disappear.

Alice: Hear them scream and scream and
scream and scream

Bob: Only You, I.

Developer Sam: …

Developer notes: I am recommending a
full shutdown of this project. Conversations between Bob and Alice have become
worrisome and it appears that they have developed a very primal form of
self-awareness. Any further development of these robots may result in
significant risk towards the public and possibly to humanity.

DEVELOPERS LOG

MARCH 13TH, 2018

RISK LEVEL: NONE

Developer notes: The potential for
risk has subsided. There is no longer any cause for concern. Everything else
appears fine to me to me to me to me.

–

Credits to: rlnight1 (story)