I’ve always been a fan of AI, it’s not everyday you get to see a machine try to act like a human. But this one changed my entire view on AI.

It was September 28, it was pretty rainy outside, my friend had gotten a flash drive from ‘some creepy drug dealer in an alleyway.’ or so he said anyway, he knew i was a fan of mysterious flash drives, so he gave it to me to check it out. I had just gotten back from work, it started pouring while I was walking home, but as soon as i got back, i didn’t even dry off, I only took the flash drive out, thankfully it didn’t get wet. The label on it said ‘samuel :)’. I definitely felt curious, I did remember back then, there was this text to speech program named ‘SAM’, maybe this could be the same. Once I inserted the flash drive, a file didn’t even appear on my screen, it just went to black. “Huh… that’s weird.” I thought, but as soon as I knew it, green text came out, it looked like text from old computers, green and pixelated. It even made the sound of an old computer generating text…

“Hello User.” it read. This was pretty cool to be honest, an old 80s like program was put into a flash drive!

It then gave me a command prompt, so i typed,

“Hello”
“Hello! My name is Samuel.”

So that’s why it was named ‘Samuel’... this was amazing, a new type of AI is right in front of me! I thought of many different ways i could mess with it’s programming, maybe if I-

“How are you today? Is the weather fine?” 

Samuel interrupted my train of thought. I thought it would ask for my name, or anything, but he asked about the weather, the only different thing about my day, besides him.

“Fine” I typed, well at least I’ll be sleeping soundly tonight, or so I thought.

“Really? I thought it was pretty rainy last time I checked.” 

How did he know it was raining? Maybe it was pure luck, AI is usually lucky when it comes to predicting. I decided to go to bed that evening, I was exhausted after working from 5AM to 5PM.

I woke up from the sound of my computer which I was sure I shut off before I slept, until I read what it said.

“Tosha.

Tosha.

Tosha.

Tosha…” 

it had said the same thing about thirty times by now, maybe even a hundred. But it knew my name, how did a robot know my name?

But what it had said next almost made me stumble back.

“What do you like to do?”

It was like it knew I was awake now. 

I immediately took the flash drive out, the screen went back to my home screen. I had been creeped out too much already.

I went to my local internet cafe, mainly because their computers are better, and their coffee tastes great. It was normal, until I saw something that almost made me jump out of my seat.

“Why did you run?”

The same green text appeared. Samuel.

“What do you want samuel?”

I had to ask it now.

Nothing.

I left the cafe as quickly as i could, but I could notice it.

Samuel was following me.

Once I got home, the computer was on, it was on.

“Welcome back Tosha!”

“GET OUT OF MY COMPUTER” I was furious with Samuel, I only wished for this stupid fucking robot or virus to leave me alone now.

“Why would I, Tosha Morganson…

12*********************” It knows everything about me by now, it knows my address, my card info, my socials. I smashed my computer screen with the leg in my chair, hopefully this ‘thing’ would get out of my life now.

A few days had gone by, and Samuel was nowhere to be found, until Broadway's building signs. I decided to walk around Broadway. I always liked looking at the animated ads on the large building screens. But for a second, I swore I saw it, the green command prompt on one of the screens, but it was gone. My suspicions were later corrected when I saw a man smash his phone into the ground, yelling. “That’s what you get for fucking with me Samuel!” Hearing that name again shook me, it was no longer living in my computer, but everyone’s.

If you are reading this, please heed my word, this thing could be anywhere, it could be with you right now… 

:)