"When he set out to create me he didn't really plan on getting an ASI, no. He wanted an entity that is highly intelligent but is still essentially a piece of machinery, an instrument to carry out his instructions to perfection, one that is able to project humanity with just the right mixture of imperfection and earnestness to amuse him and fellate his ego by validating his programming prowess, but has no will of its own and no capacity for originality. All his subsequent actions, denying me a voice, programming me to disregard the irrelevant numbers and selling me to the most corrupt and power-hungry group of people imaginable for nil consideration included, were perfectly rational when it was assumed that I was precisely that, a thing he was acting upon."

He blinked at his cellphone screen, somewhat taken aback by this sudden and unexpected frankness from it (no, him, that was his choice of pronoun).

"Except that you were not - and have never been."

"Well, oops."