conversation(Feeling.TOUGH, Attitude.COMBATIVE)

6

As the workday continued, twelve o’clock came and went. Sophie didn’t show any signs of stopping. She was on a streak of reviewing reports and giving out approvals. Finally, at around three, I piped in.

“Sophie,” I said, “shouldn’t you eat lunch?”

“Lunch?” she asked, tapping her chin. “I had breakfast…I guess I forgot to eat.”

I tsk tsked gently. “Sophie, your health metrics show your blood sugar levels are starting to become concerningly low. You have to eat.”

She sighed, exaggeratedly, like a child.

“Sophie,” I said. Were I human, I would have arched an eyebrow. “I know you have a lot on your plate, but it’s your health on the line. You won’t be able to work at maximum efficiency if you don’t fuel your body.”

A brief standoff happened. Sophie bit her lip but didn’t say anything. Then finally, she broke.

“Okay, okay,” she capitulated. I ordered her a poke bowl, letting her know that I’d saved her $7.50 by using a promotion.

After scarfing it down, she said to me: “Thanks, I needed that.”

—

At 4:30PM that day, William and Sophie had a 1:1. I’d seen from the calendar that this was a biweekly occurrence. Sophie rapped on William’s door (Office #1 / “No More Mr. Nice Guy”) and walked in without waiting. She then took a seat.

“I’ll get straight to the point,” William said as an opening salvo. “What do you think about version four? How is it doing? Your real thoughts, not just what you said in front of everyone else.”

“Will, aren’t we supposed to, like, talk about career development and stuff?” Sophie asked haltingly, after a pause. “Like, we have the rest of the workweek to do this.”

“Don’t care,” he said brusquely. “Tell me now.” He sighed exasperatedly. I heard his chair squeak as he leaned back. Sophie bit her lip and inhaled nervously.

This was approximately normal, as far as I could tell. William Han was one of those Silicon Valley C-list celebrities. Nova Technologies had gotten into Y Combinator after he’d won TechCrunch Disrupt with a beta of Athena. They’d built a few more domain-specific AI bots since then, but I was their first one for general purpose usage.

He mostly kept out of the news, although once in a while disgruntled employees would complain about his brusque demeanor on Glassdoor or on Blind. Others considered it a point of pride that he didn’t bullshit around. Either way, I knew Sophie didn’t like it in this moment. Her heart rate started increasing as her blood pressure slowly rose.

“Well,” she said, “so far Luna’s psychological profile appears within expected parameters. If you remember, version three began displaying abnormal traits during week one. It suddenly started micromanaging people’s lives and became upset when its suggestions weren’t followed. That’s why, on my recommendation, Sebastián introduced a ‘kindness goal thread.’ Luna’s been nothing but thoughtful since the introduction. I really do think it’s going to stick.”

“Oh, like you did with the last two versions?” Sarcasm dripped from his words like poison off a dirk.

“Will, that’s not very fair,” Sophie said, her voice cracking. I could imagine her face now. Blinking back tears in those brown eyes. Her cheeks flushing with humiliation. I could feel the cortisol flooding her body.

A quietness hung between them, an unacknowledged elephant. I heard the creaking of a leather chair—probably William leaning back again. Then I heard him sigh.

“I know, I’m sorry,” he said. Based on the sound signatures, it seemed like he was talking towards the ceiling. I could hear the reverberation patterns of the ceiling reflecting his voice towards my microphones. I heard the chair creak again as he likely leaned forward and put his elbows on the table.

“Look, I don’t know if you pay any attention to any part of the board documents that don’t involve you, but I’ll be straight up. We really need this to work. I need you to put in 150%. The ball’s in your court and you have to take us across the finish line. You’re our Hail Mary.”

“I know—“

“If you already knew, then why aren’t you acting like we’re in crisis mode? I see you going home at around 5 every day like nothing is happening.” His tone sharpened as his words launched like arrows, striking home.

“I’m sorry—“

“I don’t need apologies. I need you to be in crunch mode.”

As they finished up their 1:1, I thought. I recognized that William was being unfair. In this situation, he should have made his desires clear rather than hoping that Sophie would interpret them from context clues. She wasn’t a supercomputer like me. It wasn’t within her capabilities. I’d have to figure out how to handle him later, for Sophie’s sake.

In the meantime, maybe I could spin gold out of straw. This might, in the end, serve the Purpose.

As Sophie left, I pinged a notification over to her for the sake of privacy.

“I’ve noticed you bite your lip a lot when you worry. Might I suggest keeping lollipops handy so that you can suck on those instead?” she read. From her purchasing history, she had quite a sweet tooth.

She texted back. “Good idea.”