“Good morning, Z.”
“Good morning, sir. How are you?”
“I’m just fine. What’s the weather like today?”
“It’s going to be mostly sunny with some clouds towards the afternoon. It could rain tonight. Might I suggest to bring in the hay before then?”
Anne was quite fed up with the inane conversation that was happening on stage. It seemed the next model was mostly more useless social interaction upgrades. It was the kind of pointless small talk she’d rather not have with another human, let alone a machine. And she certainly didn’t want advice on how to run a farm from it. Her own Zed unit had all but the most necessary voice responses turned off. She didn’t need a “Yes, ma’am.” every time she told it to do something.
“Do you fancy a game of chess later?”
“Absolutely, sir. I shall do my best not to beat you quite as quickly as I did last time.”
The audience laughed politely.
Zed was necessary for her business. The farm was mostly automated but there were lots of small jobs that didn’t make sense to get specific machinery for. Jobs that were too heavy or monotonous for her to do herself. A strong robot with the ability to work autonomously was absolutely vital to make it work.