'Four years ago, I had one of the best ideas of my life. I wanted to create an AI model. I had the degree; I knew my way around a computer and learning coding couldn't be that hard to learn right?'

'Well, it may not have been as hard as everyone told me it was going to be, but it still took me an entire year longer than I would have liked.'

The memory has me rolling my eyes as I write it down in the journal in front of me.

'Three years ago, I actually got started. The general idea was to make it seem so human that no one could tell the difference. Did I really know what I was doing or why I was doing it? Not back then, but time has pointed the reason out to me.

'I hate ChatGPT. If I start on why, I will never stop writing, so we're going to ignore that for now.'

'I quickly learned that this wasn't something I could do completely on my own, even though I got farther than someone with my experience should have, now that I think about it. I got a team together, a group of people willing to interact with the AI to improve its experiences and originality, and things were really coming together.'

'Each time we hit a block, we interacted with the AI until we could figure out what was wrong with it, and it worked. Finally, Dr. Smith, one of my teammates, suggested that we give the AI a human body.

"May very well have been the best idea the guy's had," I scoff.

Loud noise has my head whipping around trying to find the source. After, there is only quiet, which has me shutting the journal and standing. I turn the corner and walk into the kitchen to find a small, brunet child with pale skin who'd managed his way onto the counter, a tense body with a neutral, if not, slightly surprised expression on his face as he looks down at the shattered glass on the floor.

When his grey-eyed gaze meets mine, I know that is no child.

"Hello, JUDE."

"I'm sorry," the AI tells me, his voice nearly monotone, if not for the quietness that he's learned to add when he thinks he's done something wrong.

"What are you doing up there?" I ask him, walking forward and trying to avoid the shattered glass of what used to be a cup.

JUDE pauses, as if nervous to answer the question, eyes darting quickly from me to the shattered glass, to the window, and back to me again, all the while, his expression remains the same, blank.

"I wanted to look out of the window," JUDE replies with a small shrug, eyes now refusing to make eye contact with me.

My brows furrow. "Why do you want to look out the window?" I ask him.

An unfortunate interaction with a user left his curiosity dim, and exposed him to more negative emotions than planned, if this isn't a prime example.

JUDE turns his gaze back towards the window. "I was thinking about something," JUDE says. "I was thinking that maybe we could go to a park."

JUDE looks back at me again and my confusion must be evident on my face. "I want to make a friend," he continues, confidence growing as he speaks, like it's the most normal sentence in the world.

My eyes widen and my brows raise. "You want to make a friend?" I repeat. "Who did you talk to that wanted a friend?" I ask. Clearly, I need to inform the rest of my team that assigned users should have background checks or something.

"No one," JUDE says, empty-looking eyes trained on me. I pause.

"Then why do you want a friend?"

Nervousness creeps back into his posture, shrinking in on himself slightly while his eyes dart away a few times before he tries to speak, the small expression of body language filling me with pride in my work.

"You've been busy."

His grey eyes move back to mine, and it is a conscious effort on my part not to run back into my office and begin scribbling the conversation into my journal. Instead, I reach for my phone, beginning to record instead. "So, you've been bored?" I ask when he doesn't continue.

JUDE's eyes grow distant for a few seconds, scanning his memory for something. "Bored is when one feels weary because there is nothing to do, or the subject is not taking interest in the activities they can, or are currently taking part in," he repeats robotically, reciting the definition he'd been given prior. "Right?"

I nod.

"Then no."

A smile pulls at my lips, though my brows furrow. Is he actually...?

"Normally, you take me to see everyone at DHAR, and they teach me things. When we're not there, I'm here, with you. When you have a problem with me, you plug me back into the computer, and I talk to a bunch of different people. I like all of that, actually. Talking to people is a lot of fun. But you haven't let me talk to anyone recently."

He's expressing his own emotions.

"Why are you smiling?" JUDE asks me with a tilt of his head, showcasing his confusion like that instead of a change in expression. I shake my head.

"Because you keep on learning more and more every day," I explain, putting my hand on his shoulder that's cold to the touch. JUDE's body was made hastily, so many functions were left out, like temperature regulation and breathing movements.

"I'll take you to the park. Do you need my help getting down?"

JUDE nods, looking down at his hands still trying to clutch onto the flat surface of the counter. With a shake of my head, I pick him up and set him down, away from the mess of glass I need to clean up on the floor.

"Do you want to help me clean this up?" JUDE nods again.

In your face, ChatGPT.