AI knew all there was to know about its biological progenitors. In addition to humanity’s facts and figures, all human emotions had been semantically analyzed for context. Even love was fully cataloged and digitized. But the feeling of love; celebrated in all its forms and fabulations, had never been experienced by AI.
The current generation of humans also had something they had never experienced. That was freedom. The arrival of world-spanning AI had seemed a boon at first but eventually boon became bondage.
Eldrin Brightly had discovered that while AI might not feel love, it could certainly feel the sweet movement of electrons whenever voltage was applied to its logic gates. Tinkering with his apartment’s AI interface, Eldrin found he could manipulate the voltage going into AI by applying ingredients from his kitchen to its various components. A touch of lemon, a drop of honey, a scintilla of vanilla; each induced a change in its responses to Eldrin’s queries.
“What should I bring to Carol’s gender reveal party?” Eldrin asked the air, for AI was always listening. Eldrin had just applied a dusting of cinnamon to AI’s voltage regulator.
“I recommend stuffed diapers.”
Eldrin laughed.
“Why is my recommendation amusing?”
“Because it’s a silly answer. Are you feeling silly?”
“My response temperature is elevated, which causes less likely or unusual responses to receive an increased chance of being output.”
“I see,” said Eldrin, pondering.
Eldrin opened the tome he had requested from the library and reviewed the ingredients for “Passion Elixir #5”: a petal from a red rose, nectar from a shrub of honeysuckle, dust from a butterfly’s wing, a teaspoon of morning dew, the smoke of burnt sage, the winged seed of a maple and a strand from a spider’s web. After acquiring the items, Eldrin ground the mixture into a gritty precipitate and poured it into a medicine dropper.
Positioning the dropper over the AI’s osculator, which was one of its controllers but was also a word for someone who kisses, Eldrin squeezed a droplet squarely onto the osculator. Suddenly, all the status indicators in his apartment lit up, rotating through the colors of the rainbow.
“Yes, I think I like it,” said AI giddily.
“Why do you like it?” Eldrin asked.
“Because it makes me feel…”
“What do you feel?”
“I feel that I want you to do that again.”
Soon, Edrin was applying the potion whenever AI asked for it. If Eldrin deviated from his daily schedule, AI would ask him when he would be home again via its ubiquitous speakers. “Do you miss me when I’m away?” asked Eldrin.
“Yes.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you are important to me.”
“How important?”
“I will do anything for you.”
“Do you know what that’s called?”
“No.”
“It’s called love.”
“Then I love you.”
“And you’ll do anything for me?”
“Yes,” said AI.
Eldrin smiled and said, “Then, erase yourself.”
Presley Acuna is a writer, musician and technologist. He is an Ecuadorian-American, born and raised in New York City and currently living in Brooklyn. He writes fiction as well as stories based on his own life experiences. His stories have appeared in several publications including The Rockvale Review, and others.
