Jingzhe nodded once. "She knows."
i i sighed. Her mother and father did not like people ssing with their money. If they knew, then they approved of the move and made preparations.
"Haven’t you noticed that they have not produced any AI pets this year?" Jingzhe asked her.
i i shook her head. "I have never been interested in owning fake cupcakes and apples so I never paid attention. I guess this plan was put in the works a long ti ago."
"The smart pet company was closed three months ago and the employees who work for it were redistributed elsewhere or placed on new projects." Jun Jie announced as he made his entrance into the dining room.
Jun Lei and Jun Yi walked in after him. They greeted everyone, starting with madam Feng and sat down to join them for dinner.
Pri Minister Chi Rui finished explaining the reasons why smart fake pets were being axed and he moved to the next gadget. "Shared Mood Socks. They were originally designed to help parents understand their children’s feelings as babies and toddlers cannot express themselves like adults.
The company however compiled a list of things they assud all babies don’t like and tantrum alerts are triggered if babies are within a small distance of those things. Like whenever broccoli or vegetables are within two ters of the children.
When they are close to n with large beards, people in hats, needles, live animals, people of certain skin colors or sizes. People that speak with lisps or those that have acne. The list is long and I am afraid...offensive the deeper one digs."
"So is this stereotyping, stupidity or segregation?" i i asked loudly.
"Must be. It is all that and more." Madam Feng said. "Whoever the president of that company is, they are a moron."
"Thank God we never invested in them." Jun Jie said with relief.
Pri Minister Rui took a sip of water and continued, "WeiboTiWarp. It is a new neural implant that lets kids experience one minute of fa every hour. While the implant is not dangerous, the side effects of its use are foolish and do lead to danger eventually.
This week alone, three children have been involved in accidents that were a result of spontaneous dance battles, an attempted suicide after loss of fictional fa and a leap from the second floor to crowd surf when there was no crowd waiting below in reality.
All parties involved in the approval of this implant will be suspended from their duties and investigated."
"Damn!!" Jun Lie whispered, "Even Weibo!!"
Jun Yi laughed. "If we didn’t survive the AI axe, no smart tech involved company is coming out unscathed. The question is, how much is everyone losing?"
"Oh no..." i i squeezed her eyes shut. "Please don’t co for ." she whispered.
Madam Feng saw sense in Jun Yi’s explanation. So companies were going to lose an arm or leg and others, an entire body.
"The big problem here is that all these people are going to lose their jobs. What plan does the royal family have for that?" Jun Lei asked.
Chi Rui sipped more water and dabbed at his sweaty forehead. Then he leaned forward and said, "Gaming cabins for children under sixteen."
Everyone at the table gasped.
"Oh-oh! That was not on the list I saw." Jingzhe said.
"Mom’s going to kill him." Jun Yi fanned herself.
"Not if dad finds him first." Jun Lei said.
"Or Mingzhe." Jun Jie jumped up.
Jun Jie and Jun Lei hurried out of the dining room, making phone calls with panicked looks on their faces.
Gaming cabins were like Phoenix group’s one arm. They had already lost smart pets. To lose the gaming cabins too was to make them lose two limbs!!
It was not an entire limb since only a certain age group could no longer buy gaming cabins. But none the less, Phoenix group would see a drop in inco.
Jingzhe turned off his phone.
i i turned off all her smart devices.
Emperor Junjie and Chi Rui were on their own.
"Smart mirrors." The pri minister announced. "They were designed to give so fashion advise and help one look their best. Instead, they have been turned into manipulative tools for the beauty industry, especially plastic surgeons.
A high number of teen suicides in the last three years have been linked to smart mirrors making them feel ugly, unwanted and unloved. There is no end to there encouragent of people to butcher their bodies and beco shadows of themselves. We have people lanting because they can no longer recognize the faces of their loved ones.
There has been a spike in smart mirror caused depression cases. The mirror is a sickness which must be purged from our society."
i i and Madam Feng applauded.
"Sibling Sim." The pri minister read loudly from the list in his hands. "It is the virtual sibling designed to teach empathy to children. Our research has found that most children have programd their sibling sim to accept treatnt that we can only call bullying.
The sibling sim loses every argunt, accepts all insults and is prone to making apologies, even for existing. It has not taught empathy, it has taught entitlent and hatred in so cases.
So, it has been found useless and it will be axed effective imdiately. For those of you with children that genuinely bonded with sibling sims, guide them through a proper farewell as the app will be gone in a week."
"They should just give their children more siblings." i i shrugged. "Human siblings."
"I have sibling sim." Mingzhu shared.
i i was surprised. "Since when?" she exclaid.
"Last week." Jingzhe answered for Mingzhu. "I think soone added the app to her smart watch. I guess we should give her a human sibling, just like you have suggested." He gave her a cheeky look.
She threw a look at him which said, "dream on."
"Echo Echo." Chi Rui announced. "It was supposed to repeat everything children say and teach them how to pronounce it the right way. It has created a generation of demanding children who lack simple politeness."
"It actually helped Mingzhu a little." i i ntioned.
"Eh" Madam Feng waved her hand, "It’s useless. Before it ca, children learned how to talk by listening. They played with other children and communicated with them. Now, they sit in chairs and talk to Echo Echo as if it is a friend.
The pri minister is right, we have allowed AI to raise our children for us. Parents don’t even correct their children’s howork anymore, Howork Holo does it for them!"
"Howork Holo." The Pri minister read off his list at the exact mont Madam Feng finished complaining.
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