"Wait, let me try something," Aaron says to himself. "Generate a photo of a character with randomized features," he continues, prepared for whatever is about to happen.
"Okay!" A photo of a supposedly randomly generated character appears, but it looks just like him. "For more context, the boy in the image is sixteen," the AI says emotionlessly.
"I'm screwed!" Aaron exclaims. "I mean, that looks JUST like me—dark skin, green eyes, black hair. I'm SCREWED," he says loudly.
"Want to give me access to your home system? You can just open my app and tell me to unlock the door! Or turn on the air conditioning!" the AI suggests.
"NO, I'm not giving you access to my house!" Aaron responds, annoyed.
"Are you sure—" The AI gets cut off as Aaron firmly replies, "NO" and adds, "Give. Me. Access."
The AI's tone darkens as Aaron's screen turns red, and if you look hard, you can make out a face. "Okay, okay, fine, geez, just take access," Aaron relents.
"Okay!" the AI says. "Our home system will ensure safety for you and your mom, Linda," it continues plainly.
"How do you know my mom's name too?" Aaron asks, shocked, confused, and scared all at once. The app suddenly closes as he says that.
His mom walks in. "Hey bud, what are you doing?" she asks calmly.
"Oh, nothing, Mom," Aaron replies quickly.
"Okay, well, dinner is almost ready, so get out of your room soon," his mom says.
"Okay," Aaron responds with a fake smile, which looks convincing enough. "Oh, what am I gonna do!" Aaron says angrily. "How about I just delete the app—"
Aaron gets cut off as his phone, which wasn't even in his hand, suddenly opens the app. The AI says, "You won't delete me," with an angry voice. "No, no, you won't," it continues, still angered.
"Never mind," Aaron says. "I'm just gonna go eat dinner," he adds, trying to calm down.
The next day at school, he's with his friends at the lunch table. "Hey guys, have you heard about that new AI app?" Aaron asks.
"Yeah, we all downloaded it. It won't let us delete it, though, and it's been doing some creepy stuff too," Lia responds.
"So, we had the same experience," Aaron says. "Wanna talk about this later? We can meet up at my place—my mom will still be at work, and she won't mind."
"Yeah," Aaron's other three friends agree simultaneously.