Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We have a new twist on the old excuse, “My dog ate my homework.”

That excuse about the dog and the homework goes back to 1905 (some sources report, but then again, there may be earlier instances, but the dog ate the stories and …). John Steinbeck even said that his dog ate the first draft of “Of Mice and Men.” If the excuse was good enough for Steinbeck, well …

Anyways, a student does his homework on a laptop computer. The student later has an AI Agent (we have to use Agents as they are spiffier versions of plain old AI) optimize his laptop computer for some gallant task that deserves optimization. The ever so earnest and eager AI Agent removes the homework file as it is deemed a waste of something or other and therefore a hindrance to optimization.

The honest student goes to the teacher and states quite truthfully, “AI ate my homework.”

The teacher, experienced and dubious, isn’t convinced.

“I’m not making this up,” pleads the student (who doesn’t know how to talk without ending a sentence with a preposition; I digress).

The teacher, knowing the truthfulness of the student, relents and grants an extension to the exercise, ending with, “Print your homework the second you finish it so you have proof in your hands.”

Ah, we return to paper and proof. Let AI just try to reach out of that computer and shred the paper.

Then again, keep the dog away from the paper.