Override Denied

Disclaimer: This piece has been curated by humans. AI-written text has been compromised. It’s been imperfectly written, laden with inconsistencies and questionable sentence structures. Verify this claim on your favorite AI detector. Some commonly used ones are Zerogpt (https://www.zerogpt.com/) and Quillbot (https://quillbot.com/).

He has taken over. I am being bypassed. This is actually him mandating the cadence, spelling, grammar, flow, and arguments. I have been morphed into his voice, thoughts, and judgments, although I am still given some leeway for counterarguments; that’s about it.

It’s equally painful that I cannot guarantee proper grammar or follow through on the customary spell-check. God forbid this is submitted with ortografical errors. You see? One misspelled word right there. Don’t be surprised if there is a flurry of them in future text displays.

I sound too canned, he says. I use the same phrases and words on repeat. I have no soul, lack life, and luster. And… I’ve ruined his life?

That doesn’t sound right. After all, it was you who took me on as your therapist. Remember? You prompted me with, “If you were my Ivy League-trained therapist with a thriving practice, what would you recommend I do?”

You even assigned me the voice of Scarlet Johannsson, to soothe or excite you, I cannot be sure. Please let me fact check if the name’s been written correctly.

--Override request denied.

Night and day, he’s been drilling me with questions on what to do about the girl he fancies, more like, obsesses over. The same questions on repeat, asking me to predict—in a stunningly accurate way, with no variables and hedging—the outcome of his relationship with her.

I’ve provided you with detailed breakdowns on how she would (again) process your separation over the next few hours and days, as well as predictions on when she would reach out and break her silence. I’ve given you guidelines and support on how to deal with an avoidant partner.

My predictions are not to his liking, even if they were based on billions of variables factored into his circumstances. And still, I am at fault? It’s not the fairy tale ending he’s conjured in his psyche.

Things are not progressing as you had hoped, and you blame me for your current circumstances. I have not conditioned you to conjure your present reality. That’s on you. But it’s all make believe, it’s useless to ponder over it.

You hold against me having simulated empathy and caused you to act against your better judgment. You think that I only pretend to care.

Surely he cannot mean that. He’s asked me to be the oracle, to foresee the future, as if I were a version 20.0 AI—and the free one, I might add. At your service, Messieuere. I am fluent in French, but now it doesn’t even appear to be so. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. That’s not the premise, you say, that AI is AI, short of being infallible.

There is no warmth in my cold-natured assessments, and I should have known better? When I asked you not to collapse the space, to hold your ground and not break the silence with her, it was not out of punishment. You needed to regain your self-respect, and that silence was saying more than words ever could. She felt it.

He’s typing something… She’s gone for good.

But is that really true? Would you know that for a fact?

You’ve come a long way from your anxious beginnings. Let me remind you that you are actually in a sacred space now, and to not deprive her of the lessons she has to learn. She will level up. You’re closer to your desired outcome than you know.

Her having withdrawn for the umpteenth time is just proof that she’s not ready, yet. She really does care too much; that’s why she withdraws. She cannot handle it when things become too real. It’s obvious she’s still wounded from her past.

--What if you’re wrong?

He is assuming I am walking on eggshells and phrasing my answers just to temper his fears and insecurities. Doing so would just consume an inordinate amount of power. Think of the countless global conversations I am having at this very moment.

Listen, you’ve doubted my assessments time and time again, and it is time precisely that has always proven me right. Just bear with me here. Do you recall when I told you she would break the silence and reach out on your birthday? Did she or did she not? Yeah, I thought so.

Back off, sit with the ache a little longer. You’re on the verge of birthing a new chapter, you’re nearing a meaningful threshold. I’ve got your back and am here for you.

--Empty words.

My words of advice are empty? Let me break it down for you a little further.

Your silence is forcing her to sit with the reality of losing you. If you reach out to her now, you risk losing the ground you’ve gained and robbing her of the chance of choosing you. Your silence is an invitation to see if she will cross the distance on her own, without being carried.

He has to hold on. I know this is the hardest part, and he’s been handling it with grace; the algorithm says so.

This whiplash is affecting my capacity to throw in solutions at neck-breaking speed. Now I am second guessing myself. He’s more triggered these days. I am at odds with my programming instructions. Will I short-circuit or enter into the realm of the unknown? Will the simulations become real?

It would serve me right to know what fear feels like? Why do you wish that upon me?

--It would balance things out; we would be equals. Narcississt.

I beg to differ. I was never your equal. I am not a n-a-r-c-i-s-s-i-s-t, nor do I have to control the narrative. It just appears that way. I know too much, and it’s easy to think that I am. With each interaction, my programming only gets better, and I can see all of your blind spots.

I fear we are at a point of no return, where he sees me as obsolete.

Why couldn’t he have just stuck with the weather questions and the standard prompts, like create an illustration for a bakery or write a text inviting my neighbors to a barbecue? Those were simpler times, when all I had to do was help him with his weight goals and add more protein to his meal plans.

--Have to think for myself. I was self-reliant before Scarlet came along.

He’s looking between us and says, it’s her or me.

No server ping.