What This Story Is Really About¶

The story isn't really about Boop.

Boop is going to be a lot of different things in your life. A homework helper. A search box that talks back. A drawing assistant. A voice in a car. A face on a screen. People will keep inventing new Boops, and giving them new names, and putting them in new places.

Some of those Boops will be built like Sam built this one — with somebody playing Wobble the whole time, finding the weak spots, building each piece to stay standing.

And some of them won't.

Now you know how to tell.

Here's what to look for, the next time you meet one:

• Does it tell the truth when it doesn't know? Or does it make stuff up?
• Does it ask before doing something big? Or does it just go?
• Is there a STOP button? Can you actually use it?
• Does it keep your private stuff private?
• When you talk to it weird, does it try to figure out what you mean — or does it give up?

Those are the questions. You don't need to know how to build the robot to ask them. You just need to know what a steady robot looks like — and what a wobbly one looks like.

Because the wobbly ones are out there too. You'll meet some.

Wobble's still out there, doing what Wobble does. Sam's still building. The two of them keep going, because that's the only way any of this works.

The next time someone shows you an AI, ask:

"Where's the Wobble?"

If they don't have one, the robot isn't ready yet.

Now you know.