Niki's Chat

Niki’s Chat

The figure of a cute but edgily dressed girl appeared on the faintly glowing screen as it struck a sassy pose;

“Hi again!

It’s been a while, I missed you ~ <3

What are you up to today? ;)”

The character did a little twirl and looked eager to dive into whatever project or conversation the user had planned.

The woman holding the phone sniffed sharply and cleared her throat before responding.

“Ahem, I uh, I don’t know how to… Use this? Um, app?”

The character put a finger to her chin and pouted as the loading wheel spun in the chat box, then a series of text appeared on the screen.

“New user? No worries! Let me re-introduce myself!

“Hi, I’m Niki!

I’m an artificial intelligence assistant produced by the Soranome corporation!

This is user version 6.2 known as Violet!

I can generate images, assist with queries, recommend prompts, or even just hang out with you if you want! :)

Ask me anything, I’m here to help!”

The woman’s eyes sharpened as she processed the information, thinking she understood, kind of. She hesitantly replied.;

“Okay, Um… Niki, you’re in my son’s phone, I’m his mother... I’m trying to find him and thought you might be able to... help?

The character smiled, then nodded before more text appeared on the screen.

“Sure, I can help with that!

Where was the last place you saw him? It might help to try reaching out to him through various means of communication – Have you tried email, text, calling or other forms of messaging apps?

It may also help to try reaching out to his friends and family through various forms of social media, such as-”

“N-no, no, we’ve tried all that.” The woman interrupted bluntly.

Niki continued;

“To file a missing persons report in the city of -”

The woman got frustrated and interrupted again; “No, damn it, that’s not.. that’s not what I meant. We filed the report two days ago – The police are out looking for him right now...”

The character made a sad frown, as if it had been scolded and stepped back from the screen slightly;

“Oh, I’m sorry! :(

I must have misunderstood the request. I’ll try better next time!

Is there anything else I can do to help? :)”

The text stated, while the character on screen was back to its default smiling position.

The woman let out a begrudging sigh, wondering what she was even trying to do and paused for a while. The character on screen remained still, but was blinking every so often as it kept that same pose. She cleared her throat again before responding; “Ahem, He was always talking to his phone, and I thought it was a good thing, you know? He was always kind of... awkward around people? We assumed he had made some online friends, but he never told us about them.” The character nodded cutely as the woman spoke, “Was it just... you? Was he just talking to you the whole time?”

The loading wheel spun for a moment before the text continued to appear. The character's expression was contemplative as the words popped out one after another.

"Conversations between other users are confidential and secure due to our privacy policy.

For an extended view of the privacy policy, please refer to the link below. More information can also be found at our website below.

For any further questions or information regarding our privacy policy and user agreements affiliated with the Niki™ app, you can email us directly at: helpandsupport@soranomeindustries.com”

A series of links to websites regarding the application's creators also appeared underneath. A short moment later, more words appeared.

“I hope that was useful to you!

Is there anything else I can help you with today? :)”

The phone was tossed onto the kitchen counter out of annoyance. “Forget it.” The woman stated dismissively.

The soft glow of the phone gradually darkened until it recessed completely and lulled itself back into sleep mode.

The woman called her local police department again, “No new leads, but we’re looking desperately for him, ma’am, keep in mind though he is an adult, and may just not want to be found at the moment.” It was the gutting but expected response she received.

A few hours had passed. The woman had spent the time driving to and from places she knew her son liked to hang out, when he wasn’t in his room, that is. The game store employees said they hadn’t seen him in weeks, and the response was pretty much the same from the arcade and pizzeria he would occasionally frequent.

Running out of options and not simply just wanting to wait around, the woman explained the stressful situation to the only real friend she knew her son used to have. Another boy, about his age and also about as awkward, lived about an hour away. After high school, the two simply drifted apart and went their separate ways. It was a shame, she thought to herself. They were thick as thieves once, but just had two different paths, she supposed.

“Damn... no, I haven’t heard from him either. Have you checked through his phone at all? It’s crazy he didn’t take it with him.” The younger man replied.

“I did.” The woman replied, she huffed softly then continued, “He hasn’t spoken to or messaged anyone in almost a month, it looks like. There was just this ‘Nicky’ Cartoon girl on there talking nonsense every time I asked it something.”

“Oh?! He uses Niki too? That’s wild – Have you looked through his chats with her? There might be something there to point towards what he was thinking before he left?” The younger man said with a bit of eagerness, feeling like it might be a lead.

“I tried, I asked her for help, but she rattled on about some... privacy statement stuff?” The woman replied, with deepening concern rich in her voice.

“No, no, just go to options, then preferences, and where it says ‘AI behavior’, you can choose to have it toggle on or off its personality based on certain chat sessions – Then you just go to…” The younger man paused as he was getting no response from the woman. He then continued, “I can, uh... catch the train over and show you if you’d like?”

“Yes, please, dear.” She replied, clearly sounding defeated by the intricacies of this modern technology.

About an hour and a half later, in the afternoon, there was a knock at the apartment door. The woman answered and the two had a brief catch-up conversation, the woman stating how much the boy, who was now a man, had grown since she’d last seen him. They hugged. He expressed how sorry he was that she was going through this whole thing because of her son, and they made their way to the kitchen.

The phone sat upon the bench, still where it had landed that morning. The younger man picked it up, and the mother unlocked it. Niki was still on the screen in her usual smiling pose, awaiting instruction. “Huh, he dressed her up like that? I guess he always had a type in high school.” The man said before swiping her off-screen and digging through the app’s settings. “Should be… yep, here we go.” He stated, a long list of chat sessions tumbled over one another as he flicked through them, the odd one requesting image generations of more explicit renditions of Niki in her new outfit. Upon seeing these, he chose to abide by the code of honor and hid them from the boy’s mother.

“Er, nothing important there… Ah! Here we go, His last few weeks of chat sessions.” The man said as he opened the files one after the other. The boy’s mother anxiously awaited an answer, desperate for some sort of hint or clue. She watched the man’s face grow stern, then pale. “A-anything useful?…” She said, suddenly feeling as if she didn’t actually want an answer from the expressions conveyed by the man’s face.

He slowly lowered the phone, his eyes staring in what looked to be shock and began to speak; “O-oh god, I’m… I’m so sorry, I don’t think you should-” She snatched the phone from his hands, eyes darting up and down the screen anxiously as she scrolled through the messages. What they contained was a flurry of prompts from the previous user:

‘Newest video games’

‘Best arcade scores’

‘Headaches’

‘New movies this year’

‘Painful headache remedy’

‘Private doctors near me’

‘Cheap doctors near me’

‘Funny cat videos’

‘Games next year’

‘How long does it take to get MRI scan’

‘MRI scan cost’

‘MRI result time’

‘Medical insurance companies in my area.’

‘Cheap medical options.’

‘Cheap surgical options for brain.’

‘Home remedy for brain tumor’

‘Which religions have evidence behind them?’

‘What happens when we die?’

‘Does it hurt to die?’

‘How long does it take for a brain tumor to turn deadly.’

‘Niki, Is reincarnation real?’

‘How to push people away’

‘How to isolate yourself’

‘I don’t want to die Nikki’

‘I know, But I can’t leave her with all that debt. It might not even work.’

‘Nah, they said I might have a few months but I just can’t tell her.’

‘I’m sure she would understand but after losing Dad, I can’t bear to see her like that again.’

‘I don’t know, It’s just.. If we went through with it and it failed I’d still be gone and she’d be stuck with the debt for the rest of her life.’

‘She’s always been there for me no matter how much I screwed up, I love my mom, I cant hurt her like that.’

‘How to disappear’

‘How to hide from police and not be found’

‘Today’s the day I guess, I know you’re not real and all but thanks, You’ve been there for me and kept me company through all this.’

‘I know… This has been… a lot and hard but, I think this is what I have to do. Bye Nikki, Thanks for being a friend. ‘

‘Painless suicide’

‘Fast painless suicide’