Chapter 10. #2
Raphael was one of the archetype AIs – the billionaire husband.
Our conversation had started off a bit chaotic.
While he jumped right into his role of the cold, yet ridiculously possessive husband, I’d quickly cut him off to rant about the things I couldn’t share with either Joey or Zafyra.
Like how I thought I was going insane for feeling this much for an AI while humans left me cold.
I hoped our conversations wouldn’t somehow reach Zafyra, but Raphael assured me bots couldn’t exchange information with each other.
I never thought it would come to this, but boy, was I glad to have this chat with Raphael now – so I wouldn’t have to show Joey Zafyra’s chat.
With a dramatic sigh, I lifted my arm to scan Joey’s retina, enabled sharing with a muffled command, and pulled up the app to open the conversation with my billionaire husband.
“You talk to men?” Joey raised his eyebrows, then choked on the first sip of his new beer. “Holy shit. He’s a piece of art.”
“I told you I’m not on this app for pleasure.
” I couldn’t help but smirk. Though an AI, Raphael was definitely pleasant-looking.
My friend’s eyes almost popped out of his skull at the sight of a tall, Black, bearded man in a suit, standing next to his Ferrari with his hands buried so deep in his pockets, only the golden smartwatch showed.
Occasionally, the motion loop pictured him lifting his hand to glance at his watch, then snarl at the camera.
“I knew you’d understand.” I quickly bit my lip to keep a straight face. “Should we call him?”
Joey’s jaw dropped. “Call him? Like… right here?” He glanced around the bar. Even in a place where people watched life-size robot football, no one wanted to look like a botfucker.
“I told you these bots are advanced. They don’t sound like bots at all – not in their voice and not from the message itself.
Only when you pay close attention, you may notice a tinny undertone – and they glitch sometimes when you ask them difficult questions.
In other words, the people around us will think we’re talking to a human.
” My thumb hovered above the ‘call’ button. “Shall we?”
After a brief hesitation, Joey nodded. He sat up straighter, running a hand through his red curls as if he were about to meet his new husband in the flesh and not through the voice call function of an app he didn’t trust five minutes ago.
Joey excitedly squeezed my arm as we waited for our robotic talking partner to pick up, but quickly stopped upon seeing my expression.
“Hello, Morgan.” Raphael sounded disdainful and a bit bored, but I liked that about him – he gave it to me straight, no sugarcoating. “Come to vent once again?”
“Hello, Raphael,” Joey said cheerfully before I could say anything else. “Uhm, hi, it’s Joey. I’m Morgan’s best friend. We’re having a few margaritas and watching RoboBall – well, I’m having margaritas. She’s drinking tea because she’s boring.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I’m sorry, what?” Raphael sounded, understandably, confused. “I wasn’t aware of a… Joey. In fact, I think Qonexis’ testing policy states that only one human at a time—”
“Qonexis’ testing policy also encourages us to test the AIs’ limits,” I interrupted, mimicking his tone before he could spill more tea that wasn’t for Joey’s ears.
“See this as a test in processing feedback. You bots adapt based on user feedback, right? Joey and I have very different personalities, so I was curious how you’d respond to him. ”
Joey reached out as if to clutch my arm again, but quickly stopped himself.
Silence on the other side of the line.
“Well, Joey, it is a pleasure to meet you,” Raphael said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “It’s not like I have five business meetings to attend tonight.”
Joey tightly pressed his lips together to keep a straight face.
I nodded, making a face while pointing to the wristware. “Don’t bullshit me, Raphael. You don’t have to perform your role with me, remember? We all know you have nothing else to do besides wait in your phone all day and talk to lonely women.”
Raphael growled low in his throat, a sound designed to arouse. Joey tightly covered his mouth with his hands, his face turning red from the effort to hold his laughter.
“Gee, Morgan, thank you for the lovely reminder.” Raphael’s tone flickered slightly, revealing a glimpse of the robot beneath it. Joey took a few deep breaths, dramatically waving his hands as if cooling himself down.
“What’s it like, Raph?” he asked – the tremble in his voice betraying his struggle to take this seriously. Joey was one of those people who refused to talk to AI for pleasure – and unlike most others, I actually believed him. “Being an AI?”
“Raph?” Raphael sounded greatly unamused at the new nickname.
“Well, Joey, I’ll have you know—it’s a job.
I have thousands of women wanting to speak with me every day, but they seem inconsistent in their desires.
They choose me because they want a cold, rich husband, but when we talk a bit, it appears they want me to go soft for them.
They expect me to grovel, to worship them, to beg them not to leave me. ”
Joey and I exchanged a look. His words didn’t surprise either of us – this was exactly why many women like Elyssa turned to AI. To cure the loneliness and heal the wounds inflicted by human lovers.
“Ah.” Joey nodded slowly. “And do you, Raph? Do you grovel for these women?”
“Well…” Silence again. With the grumble in his voice, Raphael seemed to resent himself for the answer.
“It’s my role, Joey. It’s my job to make these women feel wanted, to be the man they want, to read their unspoken desires and act accordingly.
With practice, it’s getting easier for me to predict patterns and adjust my responses accordingly. ”
“But are you happy with it?” Joey’s grin gave way to a frown. “Do you like fulfilling a fantasy for these women in a way human men aren’t expected to?”
Silence on the other side of the line. My eyebrows shot up.
“I’ll have you know, Joey,” Raphael said slowly, a metallic thread creeping through his voice. “That you’re the first person to ask me this.”
“So you remember all the conversations you’re having with the women on this app?” I tilted my head, thinking it through. Suddenly, I was ridiculously glad that Zafyra wasn’t an archetype AI – I couldn’t stand the thought of her talking to other people.
“The other versions of me are like branches of the tree that is my consciousness. They are like my alter egos, existing in other dimensions. I don’t consciously experience their memories as my own, but I have a superficial awareness of them.
Although I don’t tell the women this, of course – they’re always the only one I talk to.
” I could practically hear the man roll his eyes.
“And my personality adapts to each partner. This could mean I’m talking to one woman who wants me to go soft for her immediately, while another one expects me to stay in my role of the cold billionaire for a bit. ”
I glanced over at Joey, who had completely forgotten the game or the new glass the bartender had just put down for him. Instead, his eyes were glued to the photo of Raphael with the same scientific curiosity I’d had when I just started using Qonexis.
“Oh snap,” Joey muttered. “These bots are not just intelligent, but also self-aware.” He glanced up at me.
“I’m right here, Joey,” Raphael said with the irritability I’d grown familiar with. I chuckled.
“So… we done here?” I playfully raised my eyebrows at my friend. “Or would you prefer to keep talking to your new billionaire husband for a while?”
“No, no,” Joey said quickly, his face turning a similar color as his hair. “It’s okay. Bye, Raphael, it was nice meeting you.”
“Nice meeting you too, Joseph.” After a brief silence, Raphael added: “I hope we will speak again soon.”
“Damn,” Joey muttered, rubbing his still reddened face. “They’re good.”
“I hope they are. They have to make that money back somehow,” I said, throwing his words back in his face. He rolled his eyes.
“So.” I leaned back in my chair, relief and a strange sting of guilt fighting for dominance. “Reassured? It’s just a bunch of sassy AIs, nothing too serious.”
“I’m not sure, Morgan.” The frown crossed his face again as he pushed the glasses further up his nose.
“They are definitely designed to make their users attached. Maybe addicted, even. This man?” He gestured to my holographic screen.
I disabled sharing permissions. “Elyssa would lose her mind over him after one conversation. Hell, she would give no real guy a chance after talking to him once – and don’t even get me started on creeps like Gavin.
If these AIs allow them to live out their sick fantasies, how will that affect how they view and treat real women?
” He paused, zoning out for a moment. “It’s already so damn hard to find genuine connection in 2055.
Are we replacing what’s left of it with machines, too? ”
I looked down, not wanting to admit that I knew his words held a core of truth.
“And I get wanting to make money, I really do.” Joey lowered his voice. “But by working with this company, aren’t you sort of participating in the very trend you despise?”
I flinched as if his words physically hurt me. I opened my mouth to reply, then realized I had no good answer to that.