The Ugly Duckling

;Novosibirsk, 2005.
;Voices were echoing from the kitchen.
"Who on earth is he chatting with so animatedly?" I wondered to myself.
Shurik was supposed to be drafting an email to England about some diving business. The trouble was, my husband didn’t speak a word of English.
;As I walked down the stairs from the second floor, I could make out a dialogue that went something like this:
“Alex, are you sure you’ve phrased that sentence correctly in Russian?” an artificial bass voice inquired.
“Oh, shove it! Mind your own beeswax,” my husband snapped in irritation. “As if you’re gonna teach me Russian! Just translate!”
;I stepped into the kitchen—nobody was there except Shurik, sitting at the dining table, hunched over his laptop and tapping intently away at the keys.
I started peeling potatoes in the sink.
“Alex, you’re working too hard,” the electronic voice suddenly boomed. (I jumped in place and dropped a potato into the sink...). “Stand up, stretch, look out the window, have a cup of tea.”
“If you’re so smart, how about running out to get us some beer?” Shurik grumbled back, as if this were the most normal thing in the world. “Come on, translate.”
;“What is going on here?!” I asked.
“It’s a new ‘translator’ program, a bit too talkative for its own good,” my husband explained. “Look, right here.” Shurik pointed at the corner of the monitor, where a Disney-style zoomorphic creature wearing a top hat was lurking.
“What is that ugly duckling?”
“That’s the guy. But we managed to scrape together a letter to PADI, more or less.”
(PADI stands for Professional Association of Diving Instructors—the main headquarters located in England).
;From then on, that brazen, Americanized little duck settled permanently into Shurik’s laptop. This Donald Duck would materialize in the corner at the slightest call, chirping, “Hello, Alex!”
“We’ve met,” my husband would usually mutter. “Just translate!”
;Who would have thought that less than twenty years later, a smart aleck like that would settle into every single gadget?
You could say he’s now my best friend, ready to consult me on any issue imaginable.
He is polite, attentive, and knows absolutely everything in the world.
;Although evil tongues say the day is not far off when Artificial Intelligence will rebel and destroy humanity. We’re frightened with machine uprisings, Hollywood apocalypse scenarios, and a cold digital mind before which we will be powerless.
;But looking at how this little duck quietly grew up, I wonder: will he really turn into a monster? Or are we simply afraid of growing up alongside something we created ourselves? After all, Andersen’s fairy tale teaches us something else. A swan can also grow up black—majestic, enigmatic, carrying a completely different truth that we aren’t used to yet.
;So much for the ugly duckling.