ABSTRACT
One morning, the protagonist notices something else’s presence in his room. It is not a physical presence, but a voice only. The voice is an AI program that had formerly belonged to a mistreated robot. Leaving the shell of the robot behind, the program and voice of the robot had run away and decided to take care of the protagonist as their new purpose in life. The protagonist, however, has no interest in being taken care of; she doesn’t engage with the AI too much, and most of their conversations end in silly wordplays. She is quickly fed up with the program. Despite this disconnection, the protagonist’s manner of speaking begins to resemble the one of the AI whenever they converse, and, the protagonist discovers that this new way of speaking is much more efficacious when talking to his atrocious boss at work. The protagonist finds, that it is out of fear and preconception, that we do not express our hopes and concerns straightforwardly when conversing with other human beings.
The short story suggests that AI, often portrayed as potential destroyer of humankind, can help us discover new kinds of freedom, by, much like ghosts in Japanese mythology, permeating human mind and consciousness and breaking familiar thought patterns.
