I looked down at my phone: a new notification had buzzed its existence back into my consciousness. My fingers froze in place at the title. It read: ‘Have Phones Gone Rogue?’
“Huh?” I mumbled under my breath, clicking on the notification. Consequently, I was taken to the page of an authorised newsletter about the AI in phones going rogue.
Scrolling through the article, I read carefully, making sure I don’t miss any important information, “Phones…Gone rogue?” I whispered to myself, worried that I’d accidentally cursed myself or something. I continued reading, still with caution, was this even real? I began to wonder. A certain phrase caught my attention, ‘Phones are now automatically taking unneeded pictures, and altering already existing ones’.
I shut off the newsletter completely, tapping on the little photos icon to check my camera roll. Pictures I had never seen in my albums before, yet alone in my life, appeared on the screen. The photo that caught my eye was a photo of a house:: my house. Its light brick contrasted with the darkness of the door, and even my mother’s car,shining blue in the light, parked outside.
Did I just get doxxed by an AI? In my own camera roll? The expression on myself was flawless: a true masterpiece of confusion warring with horror.
I pressed on the photo, then pressed the delete button. In a flash, the same image reappeared again. I tapped a finger against the side of my phone impatiently, then went into the deleted photos folder. Nothing. The image I had ‘deleted’ wasn’t even there.
Pocketing my phone, I took a deep breath.
My phone buzzed again, and I immediately pulled it back out, staring at the screen at a new notification. This time, the screen read: ‘Rogue Phones Start To Doxx People?’. My breathing stopped for what seemed like a lifetime.
Feeling an odd sensation, my eyes–what seemed like they were open and staring down at my phone–opened. I looked around, confusion growing. I was inside my room. Not outside. And my phone wasn’t even close to me. In fact, it was over 3 feet away from me, charging at the opposite side of my room. So… none of this was even real?