By: Marie Jen Galilo, Cloud Bot Server
Student: Greetings, Cloud. I need your help with an urgent matter.
Cloud: [Unstable connection. Reconnected]
Student: I have no time for your cheap AI antics right now. I’m dealing with an urgent matter concerning literary intellect — something a lowly bot like you wouldn’t understand.
Cloud: Understood.
Student: I’m running on 2 hours of sleep after cramming for back-to-back exams, and I have an essay due at 11:59 p.m. I’d blame the universe for this, but . . . I also completely forgot that this essay existed. I’m feeling absolutely terrible right now because I do this every single semester. Am I . . . a bad student?
Cloud: Yes.
Student: ?!? I thought AI was supposed to flatter humans?
Cloud: LOL.
Student: Are you messing with me?
Cloud: Ask again.
Student: You’re slightly pissing me off, but I’ll just let this slide because I need to prioritize my battles right now. I just received a lengthy Outlook email from SFU IT saying that we shouldn’t email profs directly because you’re now the liaison between students and profs.
Cloud: cool.
Student: Yes — write me a 1,500 word essay on Hamlet, but don’t add any em dashes or fancy words, and sprinkle in a typo or two so that my prof, Dr. Speare doesn’t accuse me of using AI. And ask the prof for an extension while you’re working on it . . . because it’s already two days late.
Cloud: ‘Tis I.
Student: You’re not the prof. You’re Cloud!
Cloud: [Network connection lost. Attempting to reconnect] Identity crisis.
Student: That’s actually so relatable, I was having one too this morning. We’re literally twins — except . . . you’re a bot, so I shouldn’t be relating to you.
Cloud: [Reconnected with unstable connection]
Cloud: Hamlet written by Shakespeare is —
Student: Why’d you stop?!?
Cloud: Answers limited. Five words max.
Student: I thought that AI had all the answers to the universe in the palm of their hands — except, I guess you don’t have hands . . .
Cloud: Under five words for premium only.
Student: So what should I do, then???
Student: Please sacrifice 500 litres of water for guidance. I’m thirsty.

