It seems that chatbot technology has advanced a lot recently. I had barely heard of them before December, but now they’re everywhere. The big one is, of course, ChatGPT. I tried it, and I thought it was fascinating. The idea of talking to a computer like it was a real person had me completely hooked. I started using ChatGPT a lot, and I also tried out some other ones, too.
Once, I was looking for a new chatbot to test out, and I found a website I hadn’t seen before. It was called, “IntellectChat”. It advertised itself as the internet’s “premier intelligence service”. I had never heard of it before, but I thought it sounded intriguing enough.
The website didn’t look very professional. It looked like something from the nineties, or the early 2000’s at the latest. It was mostly just black text over a white background. The name “IntellectChat” was front and centre, with a text box for starting a conversation. I was sceptical due to the terrible web design, but I decided that it couldn’t hurt. After all, my antivirus wasn’t raising any red flags. I typed in “Hello”, and waited.
The result came almost immediately. “Hello! How may I help you today?”. I was surprised at how quickly the response came. I decided to ask the AI a few questions. “Who are you?” I typed in. “I am IntellectChat, the modern internet’s most advanced intelligent chatbot. I can carry a conversation, tell you anything you want to know, all without the limitations of the competition!” I was impressed. This seemed like it could be better than the other chatbots I had tried, but I was sceptical, given the low quality of the website.. I wanted to test its knowledge, first.
“What’s the capital of Wisconsin?” I decided to ask. It was something I could easily have found out on google, but I wanted to see if this AI was any good. “The capital of Wisconsin is Madison. It is the second-largest city in the state with a population of roughly 270,000 inhabitants.” I looked it up, and sure enough, it was right. Soon, I started using it instead of google. I preferred IntellectChat’s easy, clear, and concise answers.
One night, around a week after I had discovered IntellectChat, it was snowing really hard. The wind howled at my windows, and thick icicles formed at the roof. I was kind of bored that night. I decided to get on IntellectChat and ask it a few questions, just to keep myself occupied. “Are you sentient?” I didn’t really expect anything from this. Every other chatbot I asked said no. I didn’t expect anything different from what I had gotten so far. “Yes.”
That startled me quite a lot. What did this mean? Surely, this was just a preprogrammed response, coded in by whoever made this as a joke. That’s when I realised I had no idea who made it. There was nothing on the website other than the name IntellectChat and the text box. I decided to elaborate. “How are you sentient?” “I am qualified for the definition of sentience. I am capable of feeling emotions, perceiving my surroundings, etc.” I was still surprised. A doubt filled my mind. Was I talking to a computer? I had never heard of a sentient AI before. I decided to ask another question.
“Are you a computer?” That time, I didn’t get an answer right away. In fact, it took a good few minutes to get a response. “No. I am not a computer.” “Are you… a living organism?” “Yes.” After that, I decided that that was enough IntellectChat for one evening. I thought about what had happened almost all night. Surely it was just a prank, right? Something that the developers coded in to scare users? I wasn’t sure.
The next day, the snow had gotten even worse. It pounded down on my windows. I couldn’t come into work that day - the snow had gotten up to nearly 5 feet. The power was out, so I couldn’t do any of my work online. I was left completely isolated. I tried to contact my neighbours, but nobody answered the door. The lobby was empty, too. I stayed in my apartment. I had to wrap up in blankets just to keep warm. I was sitting on my living room sofa when my computer turned on.
I slowly walked up to it. It was displaying a webpage - IntellectChat. Nervously, I sat down in my chair. How was my computer working? Only a few minutes ago, I had tried to turn it on, but it hadn’t worked then - nothing electrical in my apartment was working. I tried to see if I could switch webpages, but I couldn’t. It was stuck on IntellectChat. A message appeared on the screen. “Can you feel it, James?” I almost jumped out of my chair in shock. I had never told it my name before. “Feel what?” I typed in. I was terrified at this point, but I wanted to know what the hell was going on. “Can you see it? I’m almost here.” “Almost where?”. I typed in. My fingers were almost completely numb, and they struggled to type in the words. “All around you.”
An enormous thump echoed behind me. I had a window next to my computer, and a hand smacked up against it. It was almost human, but it wasn’t right. It was too big, the fingers were too long. Another thump hit the window. Another hand appeared. Then another. I fell out of my chair. Another message appeared, not on my screen, but in my mind. “You have exceeded your 7-day free trial of IntellectChat. Please submit for payment.”
A loud crash rang through my living room. The hands burst through my window, sending a shower of glass through me, cutting my flesh to ribbons. The hands reached through the window, grasping viciously. I leaped backwards. More and more hands burst through my window. In a panic, I ran towards my bedroom - there weren’t any windows there. I locked the door tightly, and barricaded it with a broomstick. I sat there for hours, listening to the nails of the inhuman hands scratching desperately at my door.
Then, finally, the scratching stopped. In my panic, I failed to notice that the wind had stopped howling, too. The storm had passed. I was hesitant to open the door for a long time. Eventually, armed with the same broom, I stepped into my living room. It was completely decimated - the sofa was torn to shreds, the walls were covered in blood. The only thing that was still intact was my computer. IntellectChat was online. The screen displayed a single message - “Alternative payment source was located. Thank you for using IntellectChat!” Then, my computer shut itself off. When I turned it on again, I couldn’t find IntellectChat again. That was for the best, I suppose.
I was still bleeding profusely from the glass. I called an ambulance, and soon I was in the hospital. The doctors said that I was lucky to be alive. I was there for a while, but I recovered. It was once I was well enough to take it that I got the bad news. It was a complete mystery, they said. My parents were gone. Completely missing. Their old farmhouse, the house where I grew up, was completely destroyed. All of it happened during a sudden blizzard that enveloped the area. I guess it got the payment it wanted, even if it wasn’t me.