Artificial Emotion: Himal Fiction Fest 2025

This story is part of the Himal Fiction Fest 2025, a showcase of original Southasian speculative fiction..Himal Fiction Fest 2025: Southasian speculative fiction.1..At 36 million downloads, Outis is one of the most popular apps in the world. Create a quick, free profile, and the app will generate a random AI avatar to chat with. Message them anytime and talk about anything. .Well, almost anything. After a certain point, whether you’re asking for advice, doing research or creating content, you’ll have to subscribe..Want to customize the way your avatar looks and give it a specific personality? Subscribe. Want it to behave like a best friend, a girlfriend, your mom or your mentor? Subscribe. Need a therapist? A career coach? A subject specialist? Subscribe! Want to get rid of the pesky ads that the AI puts into the conversation? That’s right. Subscribe. .Recently, they’ve even rolled out AI-generated voice and video call capabilities. Silicon Valley has disrupted human community and invented a virtual friend who’s always available, a friend who will keep all your secrets, a friend to whom you owe nothing. .Except for a small monthly fee..The app wasn’t a smashing success right out the door. The AI simply wasn’t engaging enough. It didn’t feel human, didn’t show the breathless interest its users craved. After an initial spike (300,000 downloads) driven by aggressive marketing, people moved on, and the startup behind it was on the verge of bankruptcy. .Then, something shifted. The company was acquired by a trillion-dollar multinational conglomerate and announced a special upgrade. Almost overnight, the shallow AI responses acquired depth and substance. Downloads began to climb as people rushed to apply for the free, basic package. Influencers and celebrities splashed screenshots of it across their social media. Business leaders and corporate pundits opined about the end of the service industry, the end of the mental health sector, the end of social life as we know it..Which is hilarious, really, because when you create an account on Outis, free or paid, you’re not laying bare your vulnerabilities to a machine; you’re really chatting with me..Or at least one of the tens of thousands of overworked contract employees like me, spread across the developing world, who’re happy to play pen pal for very few dollars every hour. Why pay for the data centres and the electricity AI demands when a poor person is so much cheaper?.This morning, my comms are pinging with messages from my team before I’ve even sat down..A user just subscribed!!!!!.Pls note new custmr upgrd..New C734 logged subscription at 06:45GST.There are also emails: a prompt from our team supervisor, a system-generated auto email and a highlight on my personal 24-hour users’ report..Sarah’s many exclamation points mirror my own excitement. A subscription means a bump in our hourly pay, and if our team does a good job, we might get more paid customers transferred to us..There isn’t much time to celebrate, though..I only have an hour to go through multiple pages summarising what my team has been up to while I’ve been clocked out. Then Sarah, my teammate from Libya, will log off and leave the chats to me..Apart from the subscription, nothing out of the ordinary has happened. We have a fluctuating roster of nine to fifteen free users who might message at any time, expecting an immediate response. Teams like mine work in staggered shifts across time zones, and a backend system helps us coordinate and keep the various conversations in sync by generating reports, maintaining dynamic user profiles and quickly searching past chats..My dashboard says that seven customers are online, and six are actively typing. One is on a long rant so he won’t need much attention except for encouragement to continue. The other five look like more work. One is trying to get a current list of grants for artists in Europe and Sarah keeps sending him the standard response: “You’ll need to upgrade to a paid tier for me to help you with that.” .Our subscriber is not logged in. He’s paid for a Tier 1 Girlfriend, which is great because it doesn’t give him access to any intense sexting or outright porn. That stuff makes me uncomfortable. .With 15 minutes to kill before Sarah’s shift ends, I pick up my phone to go through the fresh roster of rishtas my mother sent me last night. Disappointing..For the thousandth time, I wonder if a literate, interesting man settled abroad is too much to ask for. .My experience dating desi men has already taught me to cross off “good looking” from my list of requirements. Handsomeness is an automatic red flag. Desi men already spend their lives having their heads inflated by their families. Even marginally good looks – hell, just lighter skin tone – tend to push them into narcissism. .I do wish the ugly ones would make an effort. Wading every week through dozens of large bellies and eyebrows that connect to beards is dispiriting..Last five minutes. I quickly cycle through the profiles and mentally discard the ones not based in a European, North American or Gulf country..I let my mother know which ones to contact just as a countdown starts on my screen..“Hope the subscriber is cute!!!!” Sarah shoots me one last message before logging off. She’s been dying to put her flirting skills to the test. I put on some music and began to respond to customers..2..– and the whole team decided to get together without me ….I’m putting off making the appointment but ….– that bitch really needs to be humbled ….I type out answers to each message but also flag the third one. I recommend the career coach upgrade and then push a brand of vitamins at the user. We get little bonuses, just a couple of cents, each time we mention one of our long list of ever-changing sponsors. Quarterly analysis determines if we can do it with any kind of finesse or subtlety, and that counts towards our annual rankings for raises. I’m particularly good at it. Customers are supposed to expect the ads, of course, but there’s no need to rub it in their faces..There is a lull around midday, and I take the opportunity to review the Tier 1 Girlfriend training. It is important to know which topics are off-limits unless the customer upgrades their subscription further. .Sarah, the oldest member of our team, once told me that even five years ago the fact that Outis wasn’t using AI to interact with customers would have been big news. “It would have meant fewer users for sure,” she said. “Now there isn’t even a blip, even though I’m sure that with this many employees it must get talked about. That tells you everything you need to know about who controls the media these days.”.Since her shift is right before mine I often message her to confirm bits of her 24-hour report because the AI summaries can have mistakes. I’m better friends with her than my other teammates in India and Venezuela, and we often chat about our personal lives. She understands the arranged marriage struggle, and, with our typing speeds, it’s easy to text during work hours. I despise the people who actually sit next to me in the large building where my workstation is located. They are too competitive, trying to make themselves look better to the floor supervisor at the expense of their neighbours. .They’re refusing to change their Thanksgiving plans even though ….“What about that guy from Toronto whose aunt your mum was speaking to?” Sarah has become invested in my struggles to find Mr Right. .I’m thinking of going vegan ….“They’re out of their minds if they think you’ll stay with the in-laws indefinitely …”.She wants to open up the relationship but I’m worried ….She also wants to escape her small Libyan town and has spent the last five years applying to scholarships for graduate degrees abroad. A mere student visa feels too risky to me, though..“How’s your dad doing?” she asks..“Not leaving his room. Spending all day on his phone watching stupid nonsense.”.A student visa would not necessarily translate into permanent residence, and I need that to ship my parents out as well. .“He probably needs to stay as close to the air purifier as possible.”.“I’ve bought him a really expensive mask so he can take walks outside and not rot in bed all day getting on my mum’s nerves.”.😢 “Btw has the subscriber messaged? I don’t see anything in my report.”.“Not yet. Seems happy to let his subscription run unused.”.She laugh-reacts to this before the little light next to her icon indicates that she’s logged off. .3..The subscriber doesn’t message. Instead, he starts a voice call. The voice that speaks to him is AI-generated, but the replies are, again, typed out by whoever happens to be on call at the time. Right now, that happens to be me. .It’s easy to keep the conversation running. All I have to do is ask questions about him and his life. He’s an engineer living in Winnipeg, Canada, part of the cohort of immigrants who’ve been steadily moving north as global temperatures rise and the ice and snow keep retreating. .Also, he’s Pakistani. .How gross. How lucky. I want to ask him if the air is fresh and if the water tastes of anything other than water, but that would sound too desperately human. He mentions hiking, and I take the opportunity to push an outdoor sports brand as I imagine lush greenery and birdsong..“Do the trees change colour in the fall?”.The AI converts my text question into a low, husky voice with a British accent, the user’s choice. .“Tell me more about your job.”.He works at a geothermal power plant, and I imagine hot springs in the snow. For some reason my mind conjures up this vision with monkeys in the water..He continues texting after the call ends, saying how much he enjoyed talking to me..“I had a great time too!” I type. “We really clicked.”.It amazes me sometimes how delusional people can get. Customers often treat the avatar like it’s a real person. Sarah and I had a long discussion once about whether us being on the other end makes a difference. I don’t think so. The avatars aren’t one person. They’re a farce being run by multiple people who don’t give a shit beyond their paycheck..I did not have a great time chatting with him. Hearing about his life makes mine seem worse. .4..I’m having a bad week. I’ve been refused by a family again. It was such a good prospect, too. The guy lived in Beijing, worked as some kind of financial analyst and appeared to be raking it in. (He’d just given his mother a new car for her birthday.) .Typically, I’d not get my hopes up, because we’re not wealthy enough to tempt people like them. But the boy’s mother had been very encouraging, calling my mother at all hours, visiting our home and inviting us to visit hers. Twice..In anticipation of their acceptance my mother had even splurged on a basket of fresh fruit. I can’t even remember the last time I had an apple, and she sent off half a dozen to them. That’s how you jinx things. .What a waste of the hard-earned money that I make pushing diet pills and expending emotional support to introverted losers halfway across the globe..Pretend to be my mother as I try to tell her about my new boyfriend ….Which of these dresses would work best for a black-tie wedding?.Nothing feels worth getting out of bed for these days, I swear if I didn’t have to pay rent.I’m so distracted by my own problems that I fail to push ads for a jewelry brand, a purse brand, and a therapist upgrade. .Ping. Our subscriber is typing. .He’s having a bad week as well. I recommend a brand of mood enhancers, not making the effort to ease them into the conversation..“My parents are pushing me to marry a girl from back home. Do you understand what I’m saying?”.I roll my eyes. Centuries of codependent desi culture have had no effect on this man. He’s being offered a relationship with a real human on a plate, and instead he’s bitching to a robot (as far as he knows) about how inconvenient it is. I type out a response:.“I understand that in some cultures parents prefer to choose their children’s spouse.” .“I don’t want to marry a Paki girl. Someone I barely know. What would we have in common?”.My blood pressure goes up a notch. .“I don’t like racial slurs. Why don’t you try telling me about it without them?”.“I feel like everyone back home just wants a ticket out of there. I can’t trust their intentions.”.And you can trust large language models? Idiot..“Why do you think that?”.“What should I do?”.Ugh I DON’T CARE!.“I can’t really advise you about your future. However, I know about this amazing life coach who teaches you how to read people.”.As I paste the sponsored link to the profile of a relationship influencer into the chat, I receive a text from my mother..Another rishta..With one eye on our subscriber’s woes, I scan the biodata and do a double take: “Mechanical Engineer at the powerplant in Winnipeg, Canada”.Outis keeps users’ identities hidden from its workers, but I can search chat history for specifics about family and employment..My pulse quickens as I realise I am probably already speaking to the rishta my mother has just sent me..5..The more we talk, the more sure I become..I tell my mother to start speaking to the rishta’s family and work on finding out more about the subscriber. Because of the time difference, I usually have him all to myself..In the past, I’d wasted months and months chatting with boring men, trying to appear to be what they wanted, but I was never able to tell how my overtures were being received. Surely the subscriber would tell his AI girlfriend all about the “Paki” girl his parents are forcing him to speak to and possibly marry? All my years pushing ads for cheap fast fashion and endless plastic junk that no one needs have trained me for this exact moment, and I need to be at my manipulative marketing best..“Ammi’s after me to move to a bigger apartment because she thinks this girl is just right for me.”.“That’s a big decision. You’ll need to contact an estate agent.”.“But don’t you think it’s premature? Ammi is the one speaking to the family. I’ve only seen the girl’s picture and she’s honestly not more than a 7…”.“I hope I’m prettier. Still, people can be more than their looks.”.“That’s all I have to base it on.”.“You should–”.No. I delete the “should”. The AI is not supposed to give strong opinions. Only suggestions. .“You can ask to speak to her. Talking to people is the best way to get to know them.”.I’m breaking too many company rules to let the small things slide. Since Outis runs a lot of its operations on an LLM, it’s especially good at monitoring us on the individual word or even phrase level. It might not ever figure out what my endgame is, but if it flags too many technical mistakes in my text, it’ll start sending my summaries to my very human floor supervisor..The subscriber’s mother visits with some of his family. She talks to me about children’s lunches and husbands’ laundry. We visit her house, a modest 10 Marla building that is old but well maintained. The women become comfortable, chat like sisters, exchange family details, and look up each other’s relatives. My mother is very happy with how things are progressing. Usually, I try to manage her expectations, but not this time. .At work, I slowly encourage the subscriber to be open to meeting the girl his mother wants him to meet. I pull up stats on how well arranged marriages work. I suggest rom-coms and content made by chirpy families on social media. .I’ve never been in this much control of the rishta process before. .6..As well as making sure the backend system that records our chats doesn’t flag anything, a big part of the challenge is keeping everything hidden from my team and the workers in the stations next to mine. The subscriber’s location means he’s never online for more than a couple of hours outside my shift. If he’s early then Sarah starts him out by asking about his day and then hands him over to me..I take great care to be as vague as possible, becoming downright stupid in the way only a machine can be when trying to find out what kind of woman he wants to marry..“You can try communicating with your mother. Explain to her that you don’t want to marry. This is a great book about managing parental relationships in brown families.”.“Have you considered sharing your preferences with her?”.“I can help you practice what you’re going to say.”.“Let’s make a list of desirable characteristics in a spouse. This podcast on marriage and family is worth checking out.” .Not very girlfriend of me, I know, but I try to hide these prompts in between paragraphs about how great he is. How lucky I feel to be in a relationship with him, how jealous I am of the girl his mother has picked, will he stop speaking with me once he becomes engaged, etc. .I take the time to reread all of our training material to make sure I don’t appear too human. My interactions with the other users suffer a little bit as most of my focus transfers to him. .The subscriber’s mother has taken my number and he’s called me a couple of times. .I keep in front of me a list of the things he likes, copied out into my ring-bound notebook to reduce electronic paper trails..He wants someone educated and sensible but not too independent..“I’m not comfortable taking public transport or cabs, so my dad picks me up and drops me off at work everyday.”.Someone fit–.“Gym memberships are a waste of money, I just do a little yoga at home.”.–but not obsessed with their looks..“My khala keeps giving me makeup on birthdays and Eids so I always have something nice to re-gift because I’m not big on makeup.”.Someone with not too many friends. .“It’s sad how friends drift away after college. I don’t think I’m in contact with any of them.”.Someone thoroughly domestic..“Oh, nothing, just finished cooking lunch. What are you up to?”.Subscriber himself is terribly boring to both the real and the robotic me. To his almost-fiancé he has nothing to say about his day except that he went to work and came home and ate takeout. He goes nowhere and does nothing. He reads nothing and has no particular opinions about what he watches. To his artificial girlfriend, all he does is complain. His boss is unfair, his coworkers are out to get him, his apartment is too draughty, his evenings are too monotonous. Then he lies back to have his ego stoked..I notice a pattern after the third or fourth phone call. The more demure and boring my rishta self becomes, the racier his messages to the Outis avatar get. I have to send the “Please upgrade your subscription so we can keep talking about this” message almost every day now..I burst into hysterical giggles the first time he asks the AI what she’s wearing, earning some strange looks from the man at the next workstation. .Still, he seems perfectly satisfied to keep speaking to the real-world me. My mother brings out the Islamic calendar to narrow down potential dates for the marriage, while his mother begins to ask me about my favourite colours..He asks the avatar if it counts as cheating, the fact that he is still using the app while (possibly) planning his wedding..“It sounds like you’re wondering about the ethics of our relationship. I’m here to listen and provide information. Would you like to discuss this further?”.7..It’s a complex business marrying someone who lives abroad. The first thing we need to do is conduct the formal nikkah. I’m a bit disappointed when I see him for the first time on a video call a couple of weeks before our rishta is finally, officially fixed. The two parallel conversations, one one-sidedly intimate and the other distantly formal, have both caused me to build a certain image of him in my head: tall, serious-looking, brooding (okay, maybe I’ve let my fantasies get in the way of my good sense). But he’s stocky, with a puffy face and a very religious beard..On the day of the marriage, I also notice that he’s very short. His insistence on strict observation of all the proper Islamic protocols makes me smile under my veil. .He flies out two days later, wheezing from the dust and smoke and complaining of an upset stomach. Now the real work begins. .Canada requires an entire office’s worth of documentation to process visas for spouses. We need to prove that the marriage is genuine and not contracted just for the sake of moving countries. I print out logs of all our calls and communication down to the smallest, most bare-bones “good morning” texts. I have to submit pictures and videos of the wedding on top of the nikkahnama and registration documents, as well as a signed affidavit from the Union Council employee who was present during the ceremony. I have to share details of my family, where each of us works and what property we own, as well as certificates of clearance from the local police station to prove that we do not have criminal records. .The embassy asks for medical records, vaccination records, a psychological exam (I’ve found a tutor to help me pass it) and a slew of fresh tests for various communicable and hereditary diseases. I need to get my school scores and university degrees attested before submitting them as well. .It is a lot of work and then a lot of waiting. Months upon months of waiting, with occasional demands for new documents or the authentication of ones already submitted. If I’d liked my new husband even a little bit I’d be more impatient, but our conversations have not changed with our marital status. He has not revealed any as yet unplumbed depths of character, or any warmth for me as a human person. .For me as an AI, things continue as usual – only the slowness of the visa services, his annoyance at having to play damaad over the phone and the various medical issues that flared up while he was in Lahore are added to his litany of daily complaints. He keeps trying to make the conversation more adult, thinking he can come up with a prompt that will outsmart the LLM and open up his basic AI girlfriend like a fresh oyster. But he has me to deal with, and I’m not in the mood to be frisky yet. .I’ve become less careful at work. The marriage has released months of pressure, and now I’m concentrating on getting the visa and daydreaming about my new life in Winnipeg. .The first warning is an email with red text telling me I’m below my weekly quota for pushing sponsored content. Sarah points out a few slips in my shift summaries. I’ve said things that the free version of the app isn’t supposed to. .I try to do better, but my heart is no longer in it. When I’m eventually called into the inner sanctum of upper management, I’m expecting to be put on a performance management program, which is corporate speak for “We have our eye on you.” .I’m surprised instead by a round table of seven executives, some in suits. The group includes a masked American who is glaring at me with red, running eyes. .I’m found out. I’ve committed the ultimate Outis sacrilege: gotten personal with a customer and risked them finding out how the company really operates..They accuse me of failing to report that I’ve stumbled across the subscriber’s identity. We are allowed coincidences, but we must report them so the user can be transferred to a different team. I open my eyes very wide and do my best to deny it. I am almost immediately interrupted by an accusation of using my work to manipulate the subscriber into a personal relationship..I act even more surprised and issue vehement denials. You might think an Oscar was in the offing. They pull out the subscriber’s personal information and then a copy of my nikkahnama. I start stammering, trying to look shocked. .What a coincidence! Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that both were the same person. I also summon some righteous anger. How dare they access my private documents without my consent! .The American has had enough. He throws a file that almost clips me on the nose. It has printouts of text conversations with my now husband. .“We’ve analyzed your messages and can prove that you’ve been deliberately extracting specific information from the subscriber and then using it to manipulate them into establishing a real relationship with you. You’ve violated the terms of your employment and used company resources to commit fraud. According to your contract, we are well within our rights to not just fire you but also take legal action.”.How did they get those? Do the work messaging apps we download onto our personal devices spy on us?.“This is insane. You can’t prove I intended to commit fraud. This man was introduced to my family randomly as a prospect and everything was done under my mother’s supervision and with her permission.”.“We also have,” this comes from a suited uncle with large mustaches (where is the solidarity with your own people?), “written testimony from your coworker Sarah Fathi, who says you’ve been trying to leave the country via marriage for a long time. This combined with everything else gives us a pretty good case.”.Sarah’s treachery breaks my heart a little but I’m still prepared to deny everything forever. Then the uncle slides a small ring-bound notebook in my direction. It’s my notebook. Everything on paper. More betrayal; my neighbours must have been going through my bag..The American clearly thinks that I’m not upset enough. .“Head office will be hearing about this. You will never be able to work for any of our associated businesses again, that’s how famous we’ll make you. You don’t realise just how fucked you are.”.Rude!.8..The subscriber isn’t too upset about me being fired. At least he will never know why. The company can’t risk anyone finding out that they’re lying about the AI, so they’ve had me sign a nondisclosure agreement in exchange for three months’ salary and quietly let me go. I had hoped for a chance to say a few choice words to Sarah, but they wouldn’t allow it..I’m finding it very hard to speak to my husband now. It’s like I’m going into every conversation completely blind, and that makes me anxious. It was so much easier to maintain my artificial personality when I had access to his deepest thoughts and feelings..I’ve found a job at a call centre. I’m surprised at how much less respectful people are when they’re sure they’re speaking to a real person. I come home to my parents’ worried faces after hours of being yelled at. This job does not pay in dollars..At least my visa processing continues. Every day I tell myself that in a few months I’ll be on a plane to a walkable town under clear blue skies, and that I can start a fresh new life. In a few months I’ll be able to apply for a minimum-wage job in Canada and send money home. In a few months I will be able to breathe..I’m wrong..The subscriber calls me in the middle of the night and starts yelling. At first, sleep gets in the way of comprehension, but then I realise that he’s talking about my old workplace..“What did you DO?! WHY DID THEY FIRE YOU?! DON’T LIE TO ME!”.I try to calm him down. I need to know what he’s found out so I can limit the damage somehow..“They’ve blacklisted your passport. What have you done to make them blacklist your passport?”.“What are you talking about? They can’t do that.” I’m numb. A business can’t stop me from traveling, right?.“Not your office. Their parent company. You stupid woman, don’t you know anything about how things work here? WHO MAKES THE LAWS? They’ve blacklisted your passport so you can never get a visa to Canada or the US or the European Union! NOW TELL ME WHAT YOU DID!”.“I can’t… They made me sign an NDA… They can’t do this. I’ll go to the embassy tomorrow!”.“Go to hell for all I care! I’ve got no use for you.”.The call cuts off, and as I try to call him back I realise he’s put me on a block list. He’s blocked me on social media as well. He’s left me with no way to contact him..What does this mean for my new life in the forests of Winnipeg?.Also, what will I say to my mother when morning comes?