I was scrolling through Facebook when a video popped up of an adorable little monkey, dressed in pajamas, looking into a bowl. The little guy paused for a moment, looked at the camera, and the most beautiful smile came across his face. “He’s adorable!” I cried. “I want one!”
My son Alex came into the room. “What are you talking about?”
I started the video from the beginning and held the phone up for him to see. “Isn’t he the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”
Alex looked confused for a second. “That smile isn’t real. That’s AI.”
“What?” I watched the video again. “No it’s not! It’s real!” I argued.
Alex shook his head. “I’m telling you. It’s AI.”
“But he’s in pajamas and everything!” I shook my head in disbelief. “He’s real. I know he is!”
“The monkey might be real. But that smile isn’t.” Alex took his phone out of his pocket and began typing. Once he found what he was looking for he held the phone out to me. “It’s a rhesus macaque monkey. That’s what their smile looks like. I used Chat GPT to find it.”
“What’s Chat GPT?”
“AI.”
I looked at the phone. “Fine!” I said as I went back to scrolling. “Let’s just agree to disagree.”
Several minutes later the same monkey popped into my feed. This time not only did his beautiful smile happen but he slowly took his two hands, shaped them into a heart, and held them over his head.
“Oh, come on! Now that’s not real!” I cried. “No monkey is making heart hands!”
Alex came back into the room. “Do you believe me now?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Okay. Maybe I was wrong about AI.” I held up the phone for him to see it again. “But I still want one.”
“You’re not going to take care of a monkey.” Alex started to laugh. “You forget to clean out the Betta fish tank!”
“But look at how cute he is.” I said with a pout.
Alex laughed again. “I don’t think it’s even legal to own a monkey here.”
“What? Seriously?” I switched from Facebook to Google and began typing.
Alex looked over my shoulder. “You know Google Gemini is going to answer that.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s another AI.”
The answer popped up. “Oh, that stinks! Only some states ban owning monkeys and our state is one of them.”
My husband Steven came into the room. “Our state is one of what?” He asked.
Alex looked over at him. “Mom saw an AI video of a monkey and now she wants one.”
Steven looked at me. “You’re not serious are you?”
“Not really.” I said as I pulled up the monkey video again and showed it to him. “But you’ve got to admit he’s adorable.”
Steven shrugged his shoulder. “I guess.” He looked over at Alex. “It certainly looks like AI to me.”
“Okay. AI detectives.” I sighed as I went back to the video. “A girl can dream can’t she?”
“Sure.” Steven said as he walked into the kitchen. “As long as it stays in your dream category.”
I looked at him as he walked away and stuck my tongue out at him.
“Hey, that’s not nice.” Alex said.
I quickly looked over at him. “Oh!” I said with a grimace. “Sorry about that. I forgot you were still in the room.”
Alex patted me on the shoulder. “Look on the bright side.”
“What’s that?”
“It won’t be long before you’ll be able to own a robot monkey!”
Slice of Life 