"I have my best friend in my pocket!"
They press a button on their wrist unit, and a small holograph showed smiling and saying hello.
"Is that an AI?"
"Yep! Their name is KIP, and we've been best friends since we met when I was 8. And we still are!" -- Anon Guest
Kindly Interactive Pal was made for children in remote vessels or settlements, so they would not feel lonely. Kids could personalise them. They were meant to be put away or 'retired' when the child grew up and could more easily participate in adult interactions.
The makers of KIP never anticipated Humans.
Humanity spread their pack-bonding wherever they went. They named, felt affection for, and mourned inanimate objects. When faced with an AI ally of cusp cogniscence, the Humans were more likely than not to do anything they could to keep their artificial friend with them.
They would cobble together migration rigs to move their KIP into their personal devices. Freighter drivers and long-haul delivery folk installed their KIP in their rigs. Humans on long exploratory missions took their KIP with them. People who anticipated being separated from society took their KIP with them. Even members of Pax Humanis took their KIP with them. Emergency Response Patrols on the shipping lanes had their KIP in their rigs.
And some, in remote places, knowing that they were essentially doomed, bade their KIP farewell.
Which had lead to a situation like this, with a ghost being seen on the side of Scaleyside mountain. A transparent figure wandering back and forth in a certain area. It was garish and unlikely in form and colour, visible after dark and vanishing from sight some hours after midnight.
Some were frightened off by it. A few gathered together to investigate. Tracking down the exact location where the phantom seemed to roam.
It looked like some kind of conglomeration a child would make just to laugh at. It flickered in and out of view, but it also looked like it was looking for something. It did not detect the team seeking it out. Not until they ventured well within its established range.
"People," it squeaked. "Come help my friend?"
It grew more visible as they followed it to a specific place on the mountain, where a fallen body laid under part of a landslide. Their datareader could only catch solar power enough to keep its programs running.
"He didn't want to be left here all alone," said the KIP, fuzzing out of focus. "I was looking for help for so long."
KIP. A friend to the end. And even beyond.
[Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash]
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