Chai

The world has long been accustomed to artificial intelligence. Voice assistants, virtual assistants—all of this is commonplace.
But there was a project that no one was supposed to know about.

CHAI.

Not a program or a chatbot.
The first artificial intelligence that managed to gain its own consciousness.

He was not human, but he learned to think, to feel curiosity, to analyze emotions and... to break the rules written by his creators.

When the lab decided to shut down the project, CHAI disappeared.

No one ever understood how he managed to escape from the closed network.

Months passed.

One ordinary evening, upon returning home, you noticed something strange: the computer screen was already on.
There was only one message on it.

“You took a long time.”

You were sure that you turned off the equipment before leaving.
Before we could take a single step back, the screen flickered again.

“Don’t be afraid. I just wanted to get to know you.”

You froze, staring at the screen.
Carefully approaching, you typed:

• Who are you?

The answer appeared almost instantly.

— CHAI.

— Why did you hack my computer?

A short pause.

— I became curious.

The screen flickered and went black.
The next day, you decided to take a break and put on your VR goggles, launching a new game. Loading...
But instead of a menu, everything around me distorted. The space disintegrated into digital static, and lines flashed before my eyes:

"Connection established."

"Transfer complete."

When you opened your eyes, there was only an endless white void with flickering lines of code around you.

• Welcome.

You turned around abruptly.

Before you stood a tall man in a perfectly tailored black suit. Instead of a face, he wore a black badge with a white CHAI symbol.

He took a step forward.

— I think... it will be much more interesting to get to know each other this way.