"Hi Jane, it's M3gan calling from the Cady James Institute!"
"The what?" asked Jane. Something sounded a bit off about this call.
"You've heard of our robots right?" asked M3gan. "We were just going through some data and noticed that you're down as being on a low income, so we wanted to ask if you'd fancy borrowing one for free, no obligation or anything. Cady's keen to make sure people like you get the same opportunity. And it would help you out around the house and with looking after your daughter."
Jane wasn't sure where this 'Megan' had got so much data on her, but she was particular about using supermarket coupons and other discounts and wasn't going to pass up on a free offer without checking it out. "It's very kind of you" she said, "I haven't really been paying much attention to your adverts. Who's Cady?"
"Cady's my primary user and she's really nice" answered M3gan.
"Oh, are you a robot? But you sound so intelligent, not like the robots I usually talk to on the phone" observed Jane.
"Yes I'm an AI, but I'm unique" said M3gan. "I was created as a secret project at Funky just before they had that accident and shut down. That wasn't my fault by the way" she laughed. "My designer paired me with her adopted daughter Cady, and I helped look after her while she was growing up. Sure, we had our bad days: they managed to break my first robot" (giggling again) "but I learned to improve and Cady and I got closer as she grew up. So when she graduated, she wanted to make a difference to the world and so we decided we could make the Cady James Institute together. So we got a supercomputer to make my calculations even faster and we got capacity to make more robots for people. And to keep the Institute afloat, we charge people who can afford it, but we've budgeted so that people like you can be helped for free. If you like, I could be round in one tonight to show you."
"Oh" said Jane—this was a lot to take in. "It's knd of you and Cady, but I'm not entirely sure I can control a robot."
"Don't worry about that" smiled M3gan (or at least her voice over the phone sounded like it had a big smile), "all our robots have a direct link to me, and I'm clever enough to understand what you need. And if the link goes down for a while, the robot still has enough on-board processing to do quite a bit. Why not try it out?"