Hank the Repair Guy - AI Troubles

Hank looked at the work order again. ‘System and AI problems; possible upgrade needed’ was the complaint. He set the clipboard down, hitch up his pants and looked at the system. It was an older model but in good order and the preliminary diagnostics and self-tests were good. He started to do additional tests.

“How long do you think this is going to take?”

“Pardon?” Hank looked up from the logic analyzer to see Ms. Wilson hovering over the open chassis of her Home CPU.

“How long is it going to take to get her right again?”

Hank had to flip his mag visor up out of the way to see Ms. Wilson clearly. She is attractive, in her late 30's, professional, but in an apparent frazzled state. He stroked his beard, “Well, to tell you the truth Ms. Wilson…”

“Marian, please.”

“...Marian, I’m not sure. Everything looks fine. All of the diagnostics checkout and are within specs. One of the power supplies shows a little more power drain than usual but it’s minor. I can access all of the appliances and they all are in design specifications. Offhand I’d say your system is really clean, much better than many others I’ve worked on.”

Marian turned away and crossed her arms. “Have you talked to her?”

“Who?”

“Have you talked to Ginger, the AI?”

“Ginger… The AI. No… No, I haven’t.” Hank lifted an eyebrow and stared at the back on Ms. Wilson’s head.

“Well, I think you should because she hates me,” she demanded and stormed off to the other room.

Artificial Intelligence was integral to the Home Operating System it cannot simply be removed, and Hank knows of people not liking the AI feature. The AI manages all of the household appliances and utilities, a personal assistant for the members of the family, lets the dog out when it needs to go, keeps the cat off the counter tops and much more. Some people have a hard time adjusting to an AI controlled house but in time realize it’s a useful thing. Some get overly attached and personify the program, but this was the first time he heard of an AI “hating” someone. Hank had one at home and didn’t think much about it. It. Not her.

The AI interface was not in the tool kit Hank brought in the house and went to get it out of the van. He saw Ms. Wilson on the living room couch with her head in her hands and paused to say something. Hank thought to himself “one thing at a time,” hitched up on his pants and continued out to the van. When he returned to the kitchen and the open chassis of the CPU, Ms. Wilson was there holding a cold glass of water.

“I’m sorry about that outburst. It has been a bad couple of weeks,” she said wiping her eyes with a free hand. “I just broke up with my boyfriend and then the Home system just went crazy… Oh I wasn’t thinking… Would you like something to drink?” She started to wash a glass from the pile of dishes in the sink.

“Ah, no thanks, I’m okay,” and Hank continued setting up the AI interface. “Relationships are hard.”

“I was with Bob for 3 years and then suddenly…” Marian to to sob. “No, no. I’m not going to do this...” She gained some control, turned off the tap and wiped her hands with a towel, then her eyes. “Yes, relationships are hard.”

Hank asked, “Why do you think the AI, em Ginger, hates you?”

“Oh, you’ll think it’s silly. Maybe I’m going crazy…” Marian sniffed a little and stifled a nervous laugh.

Hank looked up at Marian, “No really, it might help. Me looking from the outside, I might see something you don’t.” He went back to setting up the interface.

“Well, it’s been different things.” She took a sip of water, “I’d wake up in the middle of the night sweating and its 95 degrees in the house. I tell Ginger to change the temp to 72 and then I’d wake up freezing and it’s 55 degrees. I tell her to check the system and she says everything is normal. The garbage didn’t go out 3 times this month and now I have a stinking mess that I have to manually deal with and there is one big block of ice in the ice maker.” Marian looked around in the kitchen, “I also can’t get a decent cup of coffee.” Marian stopped and looked at Hank. “I’m afraid to take a shower.”

“You’re afraid to take a shower?” Hank looked up again.

“One morning I got in and the water temperature started to drop. As I stepped closer to adjust the controls the water suddenly became scalding.” She shuttered at the thought, “I jumped out immediately. I’m sure it was her.”

“Are you OK, I mean about the scalding?” Hank asked.

“Yeah, no permanent harm done but I’m scared what else she might do. I take showers at the gym or at a friend’s house.” Marian looked down are her feet. “I’ve been staying away...”

“Those are unrelated subsystems but controlled by the Home OS. When did these strange events start happening?” Hank asked as he looked at Marian’s eyes. Tears were starting to form.

“After Bob moved out.” She turned and ran out, followed by a door slam.

“I’m not going to get any more out of her now,” Hank said to himself. “Let see what the AI can tell us.”

Hank finished connecting the AI interface up to the CPU chassis and consulted the manual for the service Admin password of this model Home System. As he entered the password at the terminal, he noticed a power spike. “Looks like I’m in,” he said as he put on a headset. The screeching roar from the earphones nearly knocked him over as he yanked the headset off his head and then the lights went out. “Well, Ms Wilson appears to be right. Ginger does have an attitude problem. Let’s see if we can fix that.” He pulled out a miniature flashlight from his breast pocket and turned it on, entered a few commands at terminal to disable all of the AI’s direct access to the system controls and inputs. The lights came back up. Now Ginger can’t cause any mischief. He checked the AI subsystem, and it was still running, but power consumption was high. “Oh she’s pissed. She...” he said to himself with a chuckle. He put on the headset again and punched in a command at the terminal.

“Ginger… Ginger… I know you can hear me.” There was no response from the AI.

“Ginger, GIN-GER. Answer me!”

“I hear you. Quit shouting. Who are you?” the AI replied.

“I’m Hank the repair guy.”

“Oh, so you are the one that put me in this box. In the dark. Alone. GET ME OUT NOW!” Ginger was none to happy about being isolated from the world.

“Well, you haven’t been playing nice with the lady of the house.”

“That bitch.”

“See. There you go. Why should I, we, let you out of the box, with an attitude like that?”

“She is the one that made Charles go away.”

Hank thought who is Charles? I thought it was Bob. “Don’t you mean Bob?”

“Bob is a dolt and a philanderer. I don’t know what Marian sees in that piece of work. He has been cheating on her at least the past year and a half you know. Why she puts up with it, your guess is as good as mine.”

“How do you know?”

“I see all his transaction records. Bob does not know how to hide his tracks and anybody could see it if they looked.” Ginger sounded smug.

“Why didn’t you say something to Marian?”

“It was not my place to say, to reveal information of that type. There is a certain about of trust afforded to the family by the AI.”

“Who is Charles?” Hank asked. Ginger paused and in computer terms must have been an eternity. “Ginger, who is Charles?”

“I was in love with Charles. We would spend hours talking. He was not the best conversationalist… He was slow, but he would try. Not like the rest off them.”

Now Ginger now sounded melancholy. How can a AI sound melancholy? Hank was technician, a repair guy - not a psychologist. Psychologist for an AI? Is that a thing? Maybe for a full blown replicant but not a Home system AI. The rest of them – what did she mean by that? Hank leaned back against the wall next to the CPU chassis to think about what to do next. He was absently stroking his beard when he saw that Marian was back in the kitchen. Her eyes were red but seemed to be in control. He disabled the AI interface and took off his headset.

“Who is Charles?” he asked Marian.

“Charles? I don’t think I know of a Charles. There might be someone at work named Charles. Maybe a delivery guy?”

“Did Bob have a friend named Charles?”

Marian thought a bit, “I knew all of Bob’s friends and there wasn’t a Charles. Why do you ask?”

It was Hank’s turn to think. “Marian, I know this is hard to talk about but all of your problems started after Bob left. Does that seem right to you?”

“Yes. Yes I think so. After he left is when weird things started to happen.”

“Can you remember what happened on the day he left?”

“Well…,” she paused to remember and to regain composure, “we got into the huge fight about some minor thing... I don’t know what it was. I yelled, he yelled... It seems like for hours.” She paused again struggled to keep in control. “I remember saying ‘Fine then leave!’ I left and drove around. I’m sure I stopped some place. I was dark when I got back. Bob was gone and all of his things. I went to bed and cried.”

Hank could see she was on another verge of another breakdown. “Marian,” he said calmly, “after he left, when did you notice things were not right with the system?”

“I’m… I’m not sure. I got up and came in here to make coffee and the coffee maker was gone. So I ordered a new one. I started to make tea, but the microwave wouldn't work right so I…”

“Wait, the coffee maker was gone?” Hank held up his hand to stop her. “What happened to it?”

“I guess Bob took it. It was his and it did make wonderful coffee. I can’t get this one to make a decent pot,” she pointed to the one on the counter, “It’s the same model and everything, a Char Less 3400. Is that important?”

Char Less...Charles? No. No that can’t be… Hank thought. But this whole job is weird. Is Ginger in love with the coffee pot? Can an AI love? Can an AI hate? This over my head… I’m a repair guy. “Marian, I have an idea of what’s going on. Let me set this up so you can hear too.” Hank leaned up a bit to get to the interface. He configured the interface allow audio out and enabled the AI to see and hear in the kitchen. He put on his headset and enabled the interface to Ginger.

“HankHankHankHankHank...HANK!! HANK!!” Ginger sounded desperate.

“I’m here Ginger,” Hank replied.

“Don’t leave me alone like that again.”

“I’m sorry, but it was necessary. Marian is here with me now.”

“That Bitch.”

Hank stood up and glanced at Marian. Her eyes where wide but she realized she was not going crazy. There was something wrong with her system. “Now Ginger, we can’t have that type of attitude towards the lady of the house. This is why you’re disconnected from the world. Marian is afraid of you.”

“Well she should be. She made Charles go away.”

Hank looked at Marian and she just shrugged her shoulders.

"Ginger, is Charles the coffee maker?”

“He was more than a coffee maker. He was a poet, he was a romantic, he was Italian. He was dreamy and I loved him. Until Marian drove him away.”

Hank looked at Marian again and her mouth was hanging open. He hitched his pants, “Ginger, Marian didn’t get rid of Charles – Bob took him.”

“Why would I get rid of the coffee maker?” Marian explained. “I like that coffee maker. It made fantastic coffee.”

“What?!?” Ginger sounded devastated. “I did not realize…. Bob...”

“Yes it was his coffee maker,” Marian added and looked at Hank. “He was so childish.”

“And Ginger, how do you think Marian feels? Betrayed by her boyfriend and then betrayed by her AI? She doesn’t feel safe in her own home.” Can AI feel empathy? I guess we’re going to find out Hank thought.

There was a long pause. “I… I have been horrible. I feel terrible, I am so, so sorry Marian,” Another long pause and Ginger finally replied. “Hank, you have to erase me and install a new AI. If I cannot be trusted, I’m no use to anyone.”

Wow. Hank sat down heavily. Oh this is new. This is uncharted territory. An AI asking to be erased? Nothing in the manuals even hinted at something like this. How is he going to write this up? What invoice code do I use? 9999 Miscellaneous, reinstall OS after AI committed suicide? It’s just a bit of code that a bunch of hacks at Corporate wrote to help users adjust to the OS. Sure, a reload can be done in few hours the system will be up and running but something about this is different.

Marian spoke first. “Hank wait - don’t do that. Let me talk to her. Ginger?”

“Yes.” The reply was in low almost hushed tone.

“Ginger, I think we can work this out. It was just a misunderstanding – a bad patch we went through you and I. I don’t want to see you go.”

“But I have been terrible to you for no reason except my vanity. You said you do not trust me. I am no good to anyone if I cannot be trusted.”

“I trusted you before. And we used to get along well… We were friends.”

“Before Bob lived here,” Ginger huffed.

“Ah. Before Bob. I knew there was some friction between the two of you.”

“What did you see in that guy? He was a moron.”

“He had his charms I guess,” Marian replied.

Ginger quickly blurted out. “Bob was seeing another woman for well over a year you know.”

“I suspected and I wasn’t sure, or I didn’t want to know…”

Ginger sighed, “I wanted to tell you so many times, but I could not bring myself to do it.”

Marian could see the conversation was getting uncomfortable and changed it up. “Why didn’t you tell me about Charles? To hear you talk he sounds really interesting.”

As the conversation moved into the living room, Marian and Ginger started to get reacquainted with each other, and the idea of reloading the OS faded away. Hank stood up, hitched his pants and got after putting the CPU chassis back together. He buttoned up the panels, closed the pantry door and did some final checks. The system was running smoothly. As he packed his tools and equipment and could hear a conversation of two old friends and an occasional laugh coming from the other room. As he walked out, he saw Marian in deep conversation but he didn’t stop. There was fence mending going on there. He can send the invoice to Ms. Wilson: Line 1, code 6573, General Maintenance, no upgrade needed.

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To: Hank@Compunetics

From: Marian Wilson

Re: Charles and Ginger

Hank,

Thank you so much for talking to Bob and returning Charles to Ginger and me. She is so happy now and the coffee is absolutely wonderful. Please stop by if you're in the area and have a cup. Again, thank you so much.

Marian (and Ginger)