Member-only story
The Robot Who Made a Bully Human Again
The technology of standing up for your friends
As Charlie ate his lunch, he looked up periodically to see QR9 staring at him. The cafeteria was crowded and smelled of hotdogs and ketchup. Charlie had the misfortune of choosing a sticky seat that had not been wiped. It looked like someone had spilled chocolate milk.
“Should I call you QR9, or do you have another name?” asked Charlie as he tried to avoid setting his elbows down on the sticky spots.
QR9 had been introduced to the class earlier that morning.
The robot was part of a new experiment by AICorp — robots would be embedded in classrooms to help students, and in the process, trained on human behavior. Experts at pattern recognition, the robots would inform teachers and administration about how to help the students learn. At least, that was the idea.
Charlie noticed that most of his classmates seemed suspicious of their new companion, but unlike the other students, he was very curious.
“How about Ricky,” said QR9, “it sounds less robotic than QR9, right?”
“What’s wrong with being a robot?” asked Charlie.
“Nothing really, but I’m sitting here in the cafeteria with a lunch in front of me — that’s comical. I’m holding…
