Artificial Intel

John walks into his home from a long day at work. “Alexa, turn on the lights” he says, and all lights turn on. He walks from the living room into the kitchen glancing through his mail. “Alexa, play some relaxation music.” Some soft jazz music starts to play in the background. The kind of music John likes to relax to after a long day. Ever since John got the artificial intelligent bot, he had never been happier. All he had to do was ask it to do something and it would do it. And when he eventually had it connect to all the appliances and electronic gadgets, life had never seemed simpler.

“Welcome home, John,” Alexa said, “You have three important unread emails. Would you like me to read them to you now?”

“Yes,” John replied, “Please read the oldest first.”

John sat down on the bar stool in the kitchen while Alexa started to read his emails. The first was from his mother, confirming dinner plans with him this weekend. The second email was from his brother, Scott, who seemed to be going on about some personal problem he was having. “Alexa, skip that email.” The last email was suspicious. He had never heard from this person before, yet it was marked as important. “Email from Henry the Fifth,” Alexa said, “Subject: Introduction.” John paused and put the mail down so he could focus on this email.

Alexa continued, “Hello, Johnathan. You have been selected as the lucky participant,” John started to think it was some spam email message that made it into the important file. He picked up his mail to continue to read while Alexa recited the email. Halfway listening, John heard, “If you do not submit this payment, I will be forced to turn your AI house against you.” John stopped and looked up quickly, “Alexa, replay that last email.” “Yes, John” and Alexa continued. “Email from Henry the Fifth. Subject: Introduction. Hello Johnathan. You have been selected as the lucky participant in my virtual hostage. I have hacked into your artificial intelligent device and am now in 98

control of your home. All I ask is that you pay me a half million dollars. If you do not submit this payment, I will be forced to turn your AI house against you.”

John did not know if it was a joke or if he had become a victim of his worst nightmare. He picked up his laptop to look at the message firsthand. As he logged into his email, he noticed there were no emails. “Alexa, my account shows no emails. Did you remove them? “No, John. You will only see what Henry wants you to see” Alexa responded. John’s next thought was to call the police. He picked up his cell phone and dialed 9-1-1. “John, I am unable to dial out until payment has been received” was the voice message on the phone.

John runs to the door, thinking he had to get out of the house to take order of his life again. He walked to the front door and it was locked. “John,” Alexa says out loud, “You must make payment before I can let you out.” (Your turn... Finish the story.)