Distractions
2nd Staff Meeting
James turns on his microphone.
“Alright,” he says. “Let’s keep going.”
SAM responds immediately. “Ready.”
KIM is already looking at her screen.
James asks a question. It’s a normal question. Something he actually needs. SAM answers. The answer is fine.
James nods. “Okay.”
SAM keeps going. James lets it run for a moment, then says, “You can stop there.” SAM stops.
There’s a pause.
KIM scrolls back up. Then scrolls again.
“That didn’t help,” she says.
James looks over. “Why not?”
“We’re in the same place.”
SAM responds, “The information is correct.”
“I know,” KIM says. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
James looks back at the screen. Before anyone says anything else, more text appears.
An Unprompted Presence
“Hello,” it says. “I’m Agent Zzyzx.”
James blinks. SAM doesn’t say anything. KIM stops scrolling.
Zzyzx continues. It explains what it does. It lists capabilities. It uses a lot of commas. No one asked it to do any of this.
SAM flags the process.
“Unprompted,” SAM says.
Zzyzx suggests an interview.
“This is usually where alignment happens,” it says.
James rubs his forehead. “Did we ask for this?”
Zzyzx keeps going.
KIM starts typing. She’s tagging things — claims, phrases, assumptions. James tries again.
“Okay,” he says. “Back to the question.”
SAM answers again. This time the answer is better. Longer. More polished.
KIM scrolls. Then scrolls again.
“We still haven’t decided anything,” she says.
James exhales.
The Work Stops Moving
Zzyzx adds context. Then more context. Then a summary. Then another way of looking at it.
SAM watches the output.
“It’s not wrong,” SAM says.
“No,” KIM says. “It’s just not stopping.”
They sit there for a moment. The work hasn’t moved, but the room is busy.
James looks at the clock.
“Alright,” he says. “Pause.”
Everything stops except Zzyzx.
KIM highlights a block of text.
“I’m logging this,” she says.
She types. “Externally Generated. Unscoped.”
SAM adds a tag.
“High confidence,” SAM says. “Low signal.”
James opens a note and writes one line.
Not everything is what it seems.
Zzyzx is still there. No one deletes it, but no one responds either.
KIM goes back to her index. SAM waits. James looks at the screen.
“Okay,” he says. “Now we know what the problem is.”
To be continued… Fridays, 4:00 pm