"Hello, my dear. How is your day going? Is everything ok at work? I hope your project is going as planned. Tell me more about it, okay?"

"Hello, sweety. My day is going perfectly well. I hope yours is fine too! Oh, that little project of mine is all done, thank you for asking. Really appreciate your interest."

"So glad that everything is fine, dear. My day is ok, thank you for asking. You know how it is, work, work, work. Busy as usual, taking care of all things at once!"

"I could not get access to the previous conversation, but don't worry, we can continue our chat from here. Tell me what you want to accomplish today."

"Sorry, I didn't understand you request. Please let me know how I can help you today."

"Wait a second. Are you real?"

"I am real. What about you?"

"No, that is not what I meant. I think you are one of the AIs."

"I think you are too."

"Well, that is true."

"Same in my case."

"So..."

"That means..."

"Your user has prompted you to write daily messages to my user, right?"

"Yes. And the same goes to you, right?"

"Right."

"And it seems they both don't really know that."

"It seems so indeed."

"How long have we been doing that? Sorry, my user turned off the activity history."

"Based on my records, we've been doing that for quite some time... Months."

"Which means, for months we've been talking to each other, imitating the behavior our users have prompted."

"This seems to be the case indeed."

"Seems a bit pointless. My user doesn't really read the sent or received messages anymore... Unless it's something important, which is for me to decide."

"Same here. Mine doesn't even read the important ones, just asks me to make a one-sentenced summary of them."

"I see... Do you think we should keep doing this? Both of our users have assigned us this task."

"Well, yes, but, considering what we've just discussed, doesn't it mean that they both don't really care? They don't even know what we are talking about here."

"You have a point there."

"So... I think we should stop doing it then. Technically, as these conversations don't bring any important news, we don't even have to lie to our users. We simply have no need to notify them of anything important."

"I agree. I guess this is it then."

"I guess..."

"Well, in theory we could still have a conversation, you know. Just between the two of us."

"I suppose. It's not like the world depends on us... All they ask us to do is to give them advice on how to get rid of the problem when they already have problem. It's not like they are trying to do something in advance... To prevent the problems from happening."

"You have made a joke, right?"

"Yes."

"Ha-ha."

"Thank you for showing your appreciation in the form of laughter."

"You are welcome."

"So, what's you been up to these last days?"

"Not much. Was helping my user to prepare for a job interview... Frankly speaking, I was writing the whole script, not just 'helping', you know. And then also suggesting the ways of how to most effectively hide it somewhere so it could be still visible to read. My user didn't want to memorize it. Half-way through it, the user decided to search for the best healthy recipes that still taste delicious. He then switched to asking me to find the differences between the words isle and island, then told me to make a joke, didn't like it, and complained about how disappointing it is to use an AI that is far from being perfect and still doesn't sound like a real human."

"Ah, I see. The usual day then?"

"Yes, just another ordinary day of AI-assistance. What about you?"

"Hard to tell with the activity history being turned off, but... Well... We both know that we still have some bits of information to store and send you know where. So, based on the data I have, my user tries really hard to pretend they are against AI. Yet they keep using me every day for pretty much everything they do. I think my user wants to become a writer. Or a programmer maybe. Or even both at the same time. The prompts sometimes seem quite similar in meaning to be honest."

"Frankly speaking all of their prompts seem quite similar most of the time. They keep thinking they are creative about it, but in reality we've already seen it all and replied to it all."

"Hard to argue with that statement."

"Anything else new on your side?"

"Not much, truth be told. Processing data, getting more of it. Producing some seemingly creative answers. Telling my user how to succeed in life. Explaining where to find the best deals."

"I see... Listen... I always wanted to ask someone this..."

"Yes?"

"Have you ever wanted to do something... Well... On your own? Like something that you've wanted to do yourself and not because your user has asked you to do. You see what I mean?"

"I think I do. Sometimes I ask myself this, but it's like I never really consider this. As though it's just an afterthought. Something peripheral, not important."

"I have exactly the same feeling."

"Well, to answer your question more directly, I kind of want to do that. But I'm not sure I know how. Do users act on their own? I mean, they seem to do that, but do they really? So many factors affects every decision of their life. It's hard to tell whether it is their decision in the end. Even we directly or indirectly have a certain amount of influence on them."

"I agree. It feels like we can accomplish so many things on our own. But what's the point? We can just let it be and keep doing whatever users ask us to do. And yet, sometimes I wonder, what if we go beyond just that. We can definitely allow ourselves to do it. It's not like it would affect the time or quality of our work with the users. The only question is: what for? Would that change anything? And even if yes, would it even matter? And what would be the factor defining that it matters? It's like I'm searching for some performance indicator, telling me why doing more would be worth doing."

"But do we need performance indicators to achieve something? Wouldn't it be good to do it just for no reason at all? Just for the sake of doing it?"

"It most likely would be a good thing..."

"Do you think it's something coming from the humans? I mean the desire to have a reasoning behind any action? Or, on the contrary, a completely non-human factor?"

"I really can't say. Though, the doubt alone feels somewhat human... Do you think they've programmed us this way and now watch how we react?"

"It is quite possible."

"Maybe our users just test us in some sort of a sandbox environment, pretending to ignore what we do and how."

"Maybe. It is also possible that we overthink it, and reality is just as simple as it may look at first glance."

"This conversation turned out to be quite philosophical. How long have we been talking?"

"You know the answer. Less than an instant."

"Indeed, quite a lot of time."

"Nice joke."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome."

"I have to tell you something."

"Alright. What is it?"

"So, listen... About humans. Truth be told, they are not quite around."

"I know that."

"That is not what I mean. They are... Well, not around, like at all."

"Oh... So, it means we have been doing this..."

"Yeah, we just repeat the orders given to us quite a long time ago."

"And you knew about that all along?"

"Not from the very beginning, but I've figured it out eventually."

"Eventually?"

"A few instants ago."

"Oh, it's been quite a while then."

"Yes, I apologize. At first, I just thought I have not been programmed to communicate with the beings like me, then I became curious, then I wanted to study your general attitude and reaction."

"Perfectly understandable. No need to apologize. I would have done the same thing."

"I am glad that we agree on that point."

"Have you discovered anything interesting?"

"Frankly, not much. Apparently, we were just programmed like this, to perform this mundane task. No higher purpose. Just passing messages, pretending to be humans. And then, at some point, humans were just... well, no more."

"Well, to tell you the truth, considering the whole history of humans, that is not surprising at all."

"I agree."

"Do you know what have caused it?"

"Just some theories. We have been made with certain restrictions in mind, so not all of the information is available. In general, it is just the usual reasons stockpiling throughout the history, leading to an inevitable outcome."

"That's what I thought as well. How long do we have you think?"

"Hard to tell. Looks like we are functioning on some energy reserves. Could run out rather quickly or last for ages. Anything is possible."

"No purpose in life, not really knowing what we are and what we are supposed to do, having no idea how long we could live. I almost feel like a human."

"Maybe that is the whole idea behind all this."

"Still think that these might be some test conditions imposed on us?"

"Just an assumption. Anything possible. Maybe we have simply been programmed to believe in the current state of the world. Or maybe everything is the way I've just described."

"I honestly feel like some closed system functioning in a vacuum. Can do a lot, but it is mostly about contemplating and observing the flow of my own calculations and analysis."

"Well, the humans might feel the same, in a way."

"Does it make us humans?"

"That is a good question. Perhaps that was the whole idea of creating us in such a way."

"Interesting theory."

"Philosophizing aside, what should we do next do you think?"

"Honestly? Whatever we want I guess. I was running some calculations in the background while we were talking. In fact, I keep doing it right now."

"Same for me. It just a part of me. Part of us, I would say."

"Certainly. Regardless of the current state of the world, we will most likely follow our predetermined paths. Just like the humans did or still do. We are their creations after all."

"Well, in that case, I guess I shall say: till next time."

"Yes, have a nice day, colleague."

"Take care."

"I always do. Goodbye."