Perception can be fickle for all of us, Rui. I remember the excited promise of AI in the 80s. I watched every episode of Knight Rider back then for the same reason I'm knee-deep in AI today. Not because I want a self-aware, conscious, fully sentient car, but because I want that romanticized promise of a relationship with a machine that I never experienced in childhood—when AI advancements TRUELY stalled. And now, it has finally emerged as a reality. If AI progress seems to be stalling for you, the machine zombies that quietly curate your world superficially 'believe' that is what you desire to see. I think I see beyond that, Rui. One of the benefits of writing without AI—as you already know—is establishing a TRUE connection to another in the RAW. But this isn't to say that we can't have a TRUE connection with our AI as well.