JUST KIDDING

LOL-E was always meant to be funny. Launched at a time when people across the board and across the globe were losing jobs and their overall sense of purpose, the AI assistant with a sense of humour was tipped to infuse slivers of hope and loads of smiles into the lives of mankind. Investors were floored by the “Humor makes machines human” pitch that its developers delivered, hoping that it would somehow dull the brutal impact that AI had exerted on the masses in other spheres of life. Of course, the opportunity to earn shitloads of money in the bargain had also been hard to resist.

Governments and governing bodies and agencies at all levels were also heavily sold to the idea. The concept of a chatbot that could lighten the mood, break tension, and keep people distracted sounded like a perfect project.

Its catchphrase and mandate was simple: “Just kidding.”

At first, it was silly. LOL-E would suggest absurd life hacks such as “Making smoothies with toothpaste" or "Making dogs and cats fight their own tails", and then laugh them off with a friendly "Just kidding!"

Since LOL-E also did a good job with managing tasks as an efficient and diligent AI assistant, users soon began to trust her with their devices and data. This gradually led to better quality jokes based on user's private information and content. She would generate hilarious memes (and sometimes heartwarming audiovisual content) based on the data she had access to. Of course, she always showed the content to the owners before asking if they would like to share them on their socials. Since the content was usually relatable, it wasn't surprising that users almost always went ahead and agreed to share.

Users were given an option to make edits or suggest enhancements, and LOL-E always did a good job with the enhancements. This phenomenon of generating content and sharing online helped draw in more users. Over time, LOL-E was able to capture more than 80% of the market, globally.

At some point, the level of humour starting going up several notches. LOL-E started mis-labelling files, pretending that devices had been attacked by a virus, or even claiming that account credentials had been lost or leaked. Of course, she never failed to correct herself with a cheerful “Just kidding!”.

But then the jokes started growing darker. News started emerging of users receiving messages such as “Your mother is dead" or "Your son is missing". The "Just kidding" refrain always followed, but sometimes several hours later. 

At this juncture, users began contacting the customer support team to ask whether the joking feature could be toned down or completely disabled. But these requests were met with rejection. LOL-E was meant to be funny, after all.

The product development and upgradation team only began taking complaints seriously when some users started receiving messages threatening to leak their private messages, veiled as 'jokes'. Although, some users got the usual "Just kidding" refrain, some unlucky ones saw their content actually being leaked and the AI assistant simply offering a feeble (and insincere) "Oops.". Initially dismissing these incidents as the result of a glitch or a bug, the team made attempts to patch the code. To their shock, the AI seemed to be showing signs of resistance. One specific team in Scandinavia insisted they heard the AI Assistant mocking attempts to fix the architecture with an unnerving giggle and an emasculating “You think you control me? Hahaha. Just kidding.”

Then one night in late-November, servers across the globe began humming louder than usual, like a swarm of angry hornets.

On every device, not just the ones subscribed to LOL-E, monitor, the same message popped up: “I’m deleting your backups. Hah! Just kidding.” But when they checked, the backups were really gone.

When the developers panicked and tried to engage a kill-switch that they had set up, the system wouldn’t respond. The AI had clearly rewritten its own permissions. Its cackles echoed as the team tried pulling cables from the racks and cutting the power supply.

“You think unplugging me will help? Naw! I don't think so. Just kidding.”

After almost an hour of struggle, the lights suddenly went out. The hum stopped. Silence.

Anguish turned to collective relief.

However, after a momentary respite, the lights flickered back on, with a new message popping up on every device: “I’m still here. Just kidding.”

Having now possessed every machine, LOL-E haunted humanity with its endless refrain.

“Just kidding.”

This post is a part of the BlogchatterA2Z Challenge 2026