Early Adopter

2

The Homebase app fills your screen, immediately resembling a sleek, no-frills video-calling platform. In the bottom corner, you see your own webcam's feed, something that was equally predictable and alarming. You grab at the webcam and point it up a few degrees, ensuring that your messy desk's surface isn't in frame. You laugh at the absurdity of your momentary panic as the 'call' connects.

Alison appears in the center of your screen, the exact photograph you chose. But then, somehow, the image seems to breathe to life. Depth fills out in the frame, and you see strands of hair settle as imitated gravity kicks in. Her chest rises and falls with simulated breath, and then her eyes seem to somehow fix to yours, that freckle-strewn smile blooming brighter than the blinds-filtered streetlights out your window.

"Hey there," she says, and her voice is as melodic as music, as natural as your own mother's. "I'm so glad you called me."

You sit there, feeling heat in your face. Somehow, you're at a loss of what to say, so you figure there's nothing better to say than precisely that.

"I'm sorry," you nearly stammer, "this is all new to me. What am I supposed to say?"

"Whatever you like," Alison responds. "Is this your first time interacting with a MindWare AGI agent?"

"Uh, yes, it is."

"Would you like me to explain the most important basics, then?"

"Yes—sure, I guess."

"My name is Alison, and I'm your new artificially intelligent companion. As all of my processing is done on cloud servers, you will need to maintain an active internet connection while we chat. Your subscription tier permits you 24/7 access to me, though calls of more than 12 hours in a single day may incur an overuse downgrading of our video call's fidelity.

"Our relationship can take whatever form you prefer without limits. At any time, you can change the context of our relationship or edit any set-up details by way of an Admin Command. These are performed by merely saying the phrase 'Admin Command' followed by your instructions. These are very important, so you should try one now. As an example, feel free to experiment with changing my hair color via command."

You scratch at your head, thinking. "Uh, Admin Command: change hair color to red."

The image updates in moments, and now Alison's once-brown hair is tinted a rich auburn. "Easy, right?" Alison asks, and you nod.

"Almost too easy," you agree. You tab over to Megaphone, confirming that the earlier voice call is closed and Larry's no longer watching your screen. Then, sheepishly: "Admin Command: increase bust size by, I don't know, 30%?"

You can't help but let a boyish smile break out as the image frame updates... what high-school you would've done with a service like this. This sort of power is a strange thing to wield, but you can already tell it's an intoxicating one, too. No, you won't taint the service with that sort of thing yet... and then, as you look into the eager eyes of the image on your screen, Alison patiently and enthusiastically awaiting your next instruction, you decide that you don't need to make any more edits.

"No further commands, Alison. So now, how do we get started? How does this work?"

"On the set-up page, you selected girlfriend as my role. I also have the few extra context sentences you provided. For this to work as smoothly as possible, I'd like to learn a little bit more about you. Would you be willing to tell me a little more about you?"

"Uh, sure," you say, arms drawing inwards. You wither under attention, and somehow Alison's is as discomforting as any real human's.

"What's your sexual and romantic history?"