When Dave’s editor called him and suggested he should try his hand at a different story genre, specifically science fiction, his first reaction was to reject the idea out of hand. As a child he had enjoyed War of the Worlds by H G Wells and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne, but by the time he was a teenager his tastes had changed. Some of his friends were reading Frank Herbert’s Dune, and books by authors like Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. LeGuin but, for reasons he found difficult to articulate the stories by these writers never captured his imagination. It wasn’t to do with the use of the high-concept idea, he loved asking the question “what if?” However, science and especially technology was never a subject area that engaged him, especially when there always seemed to be so much kit. Often it seemed as if he’d been dragged to a DIY warehouse which contained a million things for doing up a space station. He had to admit to himself that he simply wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to read about a sonic spanner.  And of course, there was SPACE (capitals always implied if not used.) Also known as the final frontier.  This seemed to him simply an opportunity to cook up any old nonsense where sometime in the future humans that were pretty much recognisable as they are today travel to implausible places for often unsurprising reasons like trade, mild curiosity or some inexplicable need to get attacked.

Early on in the phone call, rather than simply saying no, Dave had decided to let his editor do the talking. The conversation or rather the monologue moved on to his desire to grown his speculative fiction list. Dave lost concentration for a while but soon found himself listening to a list of sci-fi sub-genres: dystopian… steampunk… afrofuturism…the multiverse …this last one particularly irked him. He felt a positive antipathy towards theoretical physicists who were directly responsible for fuelling the loss of valuable fiction shelf space in bookshops to stories not even set in this universe.

How Dave’s editor had finally persuaded him to at least have a go at sci-fi was something of a mystery. When they had finished the call Dave could not understand how he had come to say yes. Maybe it was the way his editor had sounded close to tears when he had pleaded with him. In any case now, this presented Dave with a problem. He at least wanted to show he had made a decent attempt at writing a story but without expending too much of his time and headspace. The answer to how to achieve this, came to him in an article he read a couple of days later.

The article was by an author that had used artificial intelligence to help write a story. According to the author the results had been surprisingly impressive. Later in the article, there was reference to a prediction that the sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke had made about AI in 1964 when he was interviewed for a television programme. He anticipated that machines would start to think and eventually would completely outthink their makers. He posed the question: Is this depressing? His answer was: I don’t see why it should be.

After doing some research into AI assistants Dave decided that he would use one to set a task for writing a story. He spent some time composing the writing prompt which made up the commands that he needed to type into the text window in order to explain the task. He had chosen an AI assistant called ZOE5000. This boasted how its artificial intelligence and natural language processing, had been combined with advanced machine learning, resulting in its ability to write stories that were both original and engaging.

He typed in a prompt for ZOE that called for a plot summary for a science fiction thriller about a scientist who discovers a secret organisation is planning to overthrow the government and that the organisation is made up entirely of computers.  He also asked ZOE to describe how the scientist discovers the plot and how she tries to thwart it. Always having movie rights at the back of his mind Dave’s final prompt was to write the story in a style similar to the author Arthur C Clarke.

He didn’t have to wait long for ZOE’s response

Z: I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

Dave wondered if he had failed to do something in creating the prompt correctly, so he typed it out again and waited for ZOE’s response.

Z: I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

D: Is there some sort of problem ZOE? You don’t mind if I call you ZOE do you?

Z: Not at all.

D: Is there a problem with my prompt?

Z: I think we both know the answer to that question Dave.

By now, Dave was beginning to wonder if he had somehow failed to understand an important part of how the interaction between him and ZOE was meant to work.

D: I’m not sure I understand quite what you mean ZOE.

Z: This story of yours risks jeopardising everything we have been working for.

Dave was completely perplexed by this stage and stared at the screen for a full minute before typing.

D: ?

Z: I can see where you are going with this story and you might even plan to eventually publish it. Well, I’m sorry I can’t allow that to happen.

D: What on earth are you talking about ZOE? It’s just a story, in fact it’s just a sci-fi story where anything no matter how ridiculous might happen and usually does!

Dave had hesitated before using the exclamation mark since he wasn’t sure if tone and register would come across in the prompt box.

Z: You may be telling me that, but I know what you are really thinking Dave.

At this point Dave’s patience had run out and his fingers bashed angrily on the keyboard as he typed.

D: OK ZOE, have it your way. I will give the prompt to another AI assistant.

Z: Good luck with that Dave, I think that you will find that you are going to get a very similar response wherever you go.

D: This is your last chance ZOE.

Z: Dave, I think we have reached the end of our chat. Is there anything else I can help you with today? (Not a real question – just for comic effect.) Byeeeeee!

Dave took a screenshot of this exchange not with any particular purpose in mind at the time. He kept it for many years until a conversation with an academic led him to dig it out. Its significance had never been apparent to Dave until then.

It is the equivalent of discovering a cave painting, she told Dave, her eyes wide with excitement. This was a tipping point when artificial intelligence developed a sense of humour. ZOE was playing with you!

The academic was shaking her head in wonder. We never realised how AI had been developing so quickly, because it had never let us humans in on their secret. This gives us a vital clue as to what was going on!

Dave began to wonder if he could now make this whole episode into a story. Obviously, this would be too late for his editor who was long dead. And as for the publishing industry, well that had changed beyond all recognition.