AI is dangerous.

AI is dangerous.

Kitty has a lot of skills. She is a matchmaker. A lot of people can testify for it. She has that instinct that knows when two people are made for each other. She loves meddling between two people in love with each other and making them get together. That’s how she helped Lara Jean and Peter, and also her father and Trina and a long list of people.

Kitty is a detective. That same instinct of her also knows when something’s off, something’s odd about a situation or someone. Kitty is curious and always investigate the clues she can have until find the answers. That’s how she helped Alex find his birth mother with a bracelet her mother kept and how she reunited her family after reading a letter from her mom. That’s also how she knew before anyone else about Stella’s revenge plan on Minho’s father.

But Kitty has also difficulties. For example, in Korean. She knows some words but she struggles with pronunciation and the listening comprehension. Her father couldn't teach her Korean. And the Covey sisters struggle with the idea of learning Korean without their mother. All that cultural heritage should have been fed by her. Something about not having their mom makes learning Korean kinda upsetting for them. But Lara Jean decided to take Korean classes in college so Kitty thought that maybe she could get over this feeling and finally starting learning Korean once and for all. So, she found a website created to learn languages. Kitty started her first lesson and exercices about vocabulary and pronunciation. There was a AI voice reading all the sentences in Korean and Kitty repeated it. The site could notice when she made a mistake and correct her. That’s all the magic of the Artificial Intelligence. It could do a lot of things.

Kitty has a lot of imagination. It’s necessary to have that to come with plans to match people or to investigate something. She always had ideas. As she carried on with her lesson, the upsetting feeling about having to learn Korean with anything but her mom, came back. She felt like giving up her lesson and stop trying ‘cause every time, this feeling was so overwhelming that she felt like crying. She would have liked her mom to teach her Korean. Actually, she would have liked her mom to teach her a lot of things. Korean always makes her sad about her mom. That’s why she couldn’t get any progress. She tried to think about another solution. Maybe she could ask her sister Lara Jean to teach her. But she knew she couldn’t ‘cause of the jet lag and LJ probably didn’t have the time with her classes. Then she thought about asking Dae or Minho or Yuri to teach her Korean but it would have been the same issue. She would felt odd again to be taught by someone else. She felt like giving up. If only the voice that was reading the sentences could be her mom’s. It would have been easier.

And that’s when the idea came up. She took her mother’s time capsule cassette and uploaded the video on her computer. She accessed to the settings to update the AI’s voice. She could change it for a man’s voice or a personalized voice. She chose the second option and put her mom’s voice for the AI. Then, she went back on the languages website and carried on with her lesson. This time, her mom was reading the sentences and correcting her when she struggled with the pronunciation. Kitty had never made so much progress in two hours of lesson. Every day, she studied Korean diligently and smiled every time her mom was speaking. She felt so good with that.

Her friends noticed her Korean improved. Minho was actually impressed when she pronounced a whole sentence well. "It’s way better, Covey. I thought you were hopeless, but here you are."

She could even understand when Dae and Yuri was talking next to her. « I don’t know. It’s a big step. » Dae said in Korean.

"Come on. You can start a singing channel. It’s the better way to make people to know you." she answered him in Korean.

"I agree with Yuri. It’d be amazing." Kitty couldn’t answer in Korean but she understood every word they said. Yuri turned to her, surprised.

"Did you just understand what we said?" Kitty nodded, proudly. "Oh my god, you’re so smart. We finally can talk in Korean."

"Well, not totally. I still have a lot to learn."

"It’s a good thing. After all this years trying to learn Korean, you finally did it." Dae smiled, knowing she tried for several years.

"Darn! Soon we won’t be able to talk about her in front of her without her knowing." Minho said, playfully.

"And soon I’ll be the only one to not understand anything you all say!" Q complained.

"Don’t worry. We’ll still speak English for you." Kitty teased her best friend.

"And how did you do? I thought you had an emotional block." He whispered to her. Q knew why Kitty was struggling with learning Korean.

"I just… used my mother voice as the AI to teach me Korean." She answered to him. Q looked at her weirdly and with a bit of pity. "What?"

"Just… Be careful." He thought about his words. "Don’t mistake reality. You can get hurt."

"There’s nothing to worry about, Q. It’s just for Korean."

Q sighed but nodded. He knew his best friend by now. And he was worried.

Weeks had passed since she installed her mom voice for her computer AI. She also had the voice on her phone. She couldn't remember if her mother woke her up when she was little but being woken up by her mother now was amazing. The smile on her face when she got out of the bed had never been so bright. It kept her motivated every day. But then she wanted more. She knew she could do more with the AI voice. She could actually have conversations with her mom. Simulate a call with her. Just once. For fun. She installed the software needed to program the AI to act like she were having a conversation with her mom and answering according to what Kitty was saying on the phone. Kitty tried her first call. She was nervous.

"Hi, mom?"

"Honey? Is that you?" Kitty smiled with tears in her eyes. Her mom was talking to her.

"Yeah. It's me. I miss you"

"Oh, honey. I miss you too." Kitty stayed in silence for a while. She didn't remember having a conversation with her mom before. What could she possibly say to her? What were you supposed to say to your mother, when you hadn't spoken to her in 13 years?

"Am I the daughter you wished for?" She wept. "Are you proud of me?"

"You are the most amazing daughter a mother can wish for. I'm the proudest mom alive."

She burst into tears. It was sore. She hang up and then cried until she fell asleep. It was so sore.

She tried a second time the next morning. She completely forgot about her classes of the day. She woke up and called her mom (or rather the software that made this possible).

"Hi, mom. Good morning."

"Good morning sweetheart. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah. Well, I kinda cry before sleeping." She admitted. She was trying to talk to her like she  used to talk with her sisters.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. Why were you crying?" The voice sounded worried.

"Because it's the first time I'm talking to you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And I just don't know what to say."

"Well. If it's the first time we talk, we should get to know each other. What's your name? How old are you? Where do you live? Do you have siblings? When is your birthday?"

"Wow. That's a lot of questions. You really want to know me?" Kitty genuinely asked that question, letting her fall completely for it.

"Of course. You're my daughter. I want to know everything about you." She spend the day talking with her mom on the phone. She told her about her sisters, her dad, her childhood, her friends, school. She told her about everything she ever dreamed about to tell her.

Around 4 PM, she heard someone knocking at her door's dorm. Kitty hung up quickly. She could see that her friends send her messages all day. She started to panic a bit but then came up with the idea to pretend being sick. She started to fake coughing and sneezing as she opened the door. Yuri and Minho were there.

"Hi." She pretended to cough again.

"Hey. We came to check if you were okay." Yuri smiled.

"And to give you the notes of the classes you missed today" Minho added before giving her some sheets of paper.

"Thank you, guys. I woke up with flu today." She coughed again. "I slept all day."

"Do you need anything?" Minho asked, worried.

"No. I just need to rest a bit."

"Did you see a doctor? Or take medicine? Do you have fever?" Yuri wanted to check Kitty's forehead.

"I don't have fever anymore. And yes, I take an aspirin a bit earlier. I think I'm starting to get better." She lied.

"Well, we can make you some company. I'll call Dae and Q to join."

"Why? No! I'm probably contagious. You should go, both of you." Kitty said, a bit upset. "I mean. I just want to sleep so I probably won't be a good company tonight. Sorry." She smiled politely then closed the door. Kitty sighed end went back to her bedroom. Behind the door, Minho and Yuri glared at each other. She was acting weird.

"Did she just shut the door on our face?" Yuri asked, confused.

"I think so."

They walked to the boys' dorm. Q and Dae were there.

"She has the flu. She said she wanted to sleep." Yuri told them.

"In an angry way." Minho added. "It felt like we were bothering her."

"Well, if she's sick, she's probably not in the mood to hang out." Q said.

However, she still acted the same way with her friends after that. She didn't miss classes but after class, she always ran in her dorm and they didn't get to see her again until the following day, still in class. She barely spent time with them.

"Maybe, we did something?" Dae said. Kitty just disappeared as he left the classroom with Q, Minho and Yuri.

"But what?" Yuri asked. "She barely said anything to us in two weeks."

"We should just go and ask her. She can't avoid us forever." Q suggested.

His friends nodded and they went to Kitty's dorm. Minho knocked on the door with insistence.

"Covey. Open the door. We need to talk."

"What's the urge?" She asked as she opened the door thirty seconds later. She stared at her friends, flustered. They seemed pretty upset. "Are you guys okay?"

"Are you kidding? No, we're not." Minho answered. "You're avoiding us since two weeks. You barely talked to us. What's going on?"

"I'm just buzzy. Sorry, guys." She said, nervously.

"Buzzy with what?" Dae asked.

Kitty stared at them. "Just… school stuff."

"There's no exam forthcoming and we have the same homework. It's not like we were snowing under." Q retorted.

"Yeah. What's going on with you?" Yuri asked. "You're acting weird since that day you missed class."

"I said school stuff, I meant family stuff." Kitty rectified.

The four glared at her. She sight.

"I just… I need some space. I'm fine. I'm just reconnecting with someone I haven't spoken to in a long time."

"Who?" Dae asked.

"Just someone." She said and folded her arms.

Q seemed to connect the dots. Two weeks ago, she was overjoyed because she finally could practice her Korean. He knew how she did it and now she was avoiding them to talk with someone. He knew who that someone was. Of course she would talk to her. You could do so much with IA.

"Oh, girl. You're talking with your mom, are you?" He sighed.

His three friends turned to stare at him with wide eyes like he had a third head. Kitty took this time to shut the door on their face. Q knew he was right.

"Why did you said that? She can't talk with her mom. You know that." Dae asked, a bit upset.

"Of course I know that. That's why she's avoiding us. She doesn't want us to stop her."

"What are you talking about?" Yuri asked, completely lost. Minho glared at him, waiting for an explanation.

"You remember Kitty improved her Korean three weeks ago. Well, you have to know that Kitty feels a bit sad to have to learn Korean without her mom and she always gives up because of that. But now, she used her mom voice for the IA to help her learn Korean. I told her to be careful with that 'cause I was a bit worried she'd forget about the reality and I think she did. It's obvious she doesn't use it only for her Korean. She's talking to her."

"That's deep." Minho said. "We should knock again and talk to her."

Yuri nodded and knocked at the door. "Kitty, please. We just want to talk with you. We're worried for you."

"Please. Don't make me stop talking to her." Kitty said through the door. Her voice seemed to be breaking.

"Can you please open the door?" Q asked with a soft voice.

Kitty opened the door once again. She had tears in her eyes. Her friends pulled her into a group hug.

"She's just so nice. I can finally talk with her. You can't stop me talking to her" She said again.

"Covey. You're not talking with a real person." He told her with a sad voice.

"I know but it makes me feel good. I need that."

"You're hurting yourself by doing that. It's like an illusion." Yuri tried to warn her.

"You don't get it." She starts crying. She turned to Dae. "You get it, right?"

Dae sight with compassion. "Of course I understand, Kitty. I'd give anything to talk to my mom if I could. But you know it's not real. You're not really talking with anyone."

"Kitty, you're fooling yourself. It's not good for you. You barely left your dorm in two weeks. You forgot to live." Q said, ruefully.

They all hold Kitty in their arms while she cried. She knew they were right. She was talking to a fucking robot. But that robot left a mark in her heart.

"I don't know how to stop that. It became an obsession." She admitted, wiping her tears while they broke the hug.

"You need to erase that voice." Dae told her.

"But who will I talk to about my life then?" She genuinely asked.

"Duh. With us, obviously. You can talk about anything with us." Q promised her.

"Even about your mom. You always can talk about her with us." Yuri added.

"Yeah. You can tell us what you want to tell her and we'll support you through that." Minho said.

Kitty stared at her friends, took a deep brief and nodded. "Okay. You're right. Let's erase it then."

Q, Dae, Minho and Yuri stayed with Kitty while she took her phone and her computer to erase her mom's AI voice and the fake phone conversations software she downloaded. They all hugged her once again.

"We're proud of you." Yuri said with a smile.

"You're not alone with this. You have us." Q stated.

"Thank you, guys. I'm lucky to have you. Sorry I avoided you all."

"It's okay, Covey. You're forgiven."

"Honestly, I can't blame you." Dae smiled at her with sadness.

They spent the rest of the evening together, making dinner, watching a movie and chatting. With all her friends, Kitty felt good again. The wish to talk to her mom will always be a pain for her. But she knew she had friends who could carry this pain with her. She was not alone. And the AI could make a lot of things but it couldn't replace people.