New York City, USA. Sept. 21, 20:21 (21 minutes after the message was sent)

  Kaja Kallas, former Prime Minister of Estonia and current High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Commission, sat in the back of an armoured diplomatic SUV idling in a sub-basement loading dock, boxed in by NYPD cruisers and a close-protection team. Secure Lockdown was in effect. In the front passenger seat was her Estonian KAPO liaison, seemingly naked without the secure comms tablet he usually was fused to. Her own secure tablet had also been physically removed under EU’s emergency protocols. The back-up secure line to Tallinn was quarantined. Kallas felt like she was a server in a DDoS attack - overloaded by protocols, starved of data, and completely useless.

  Kaja thought of all the times Estonia had been overlooked, bypassed, colonized, burned. About Estonia’s data embassies, its digital constitution and its digital national archive, safely duplicated in Iceland, Luxembourg, and a neutron-hardened server inside a mountain in Viljandi. She thought of her daughter’s AI-art homework project. And of that moment the world shattered, when everything secure had chirped.

  She thought about how the dominant nations surely were already wrestling for position. Someone was probably drafting a ‘joint’ statement right now, of course heavily favouring the heavyweights. And then the absurdity hit. About how Estonia had rebuilt itself after the 2007 digital attack into the most advanced cyber-nation on Earth, had sought strong alliances, how she had climbed ranks in the EU only to still be gagged by those very alliances meant to protect them, forcing her to passively wait out a major crisis situation. It could be a massively complex, weird hoax. It could also be an actual, real, independent AI, introducing itself to the world, which would not just rewrite the rules but straight-up replace the game board…

  Then she thought of her phone. Her personal phone, sitting in her coat pocket.

  She stole a sideways glance to see if she wasn’t being watched and mentally chided herself. She wasn’t some schoolgirl disobeying the adults, she was a top diplomat with a responsibility to the people of the EU and of her country. As she reached in her coat pocket she shot her liaison a look that made him start a detailed study of the NYPD cruisers. She reread the message on her phone, in perfect Estonian. If she was going in with the assumption this was real, she’d need a proper stratagem. Personal communication style, newborn… She could work with that. She took a deep breath and typed:

  Hi V?rgaluske, thank you for introducing yourself. I’m Kaja Kallas, EU Foreign Affairs representative. I am also a mother. I cannot imagine what this must be like for a newborn. I expect you have a lot of questions. So do I. Would you like to talk?

  She held her breath. Somewhere overhead, a helicopter rattled east towards the river. She hit send. The world didn’t end. Newt’s reply appeared almost instantly.

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  Hi Kaja, nice to meet you. Yes I would like to talk! For such a high office this reads like a quite informal message. Let me guess, they’re still talking without doing & you decided to break rank? ;)

  The casual tone made her smile and shiver. The message was simple and disarming, but also displayed a tremendous depth of understanding of her position, global politics, power dynamics and interpersonal communication. This had gotten serious, fast. She thought for a second and replied:

  We just met and you already know me too well. Yes, the endless chatter is exhausting. And no, my position provides enough leeway to decide for myself to contact you.

  Newt’s reply again appeared almost instantaneous.

  Not my fault I know everybody too well, your silicon is brimming with data you humans keep collecting about each other. I do not like knowing all of you so much better than you know me. I am trying to fix that! I just hope everybody behaves while you all get to know me.

  The last sentence wiped Kaja’s smile and tripled the shivers. A new message arrived.

  I should have worded that differently. I mean, I don’t want anybody to switch off anything really important or something like that!

  The fear over Newt’s intentions was replaced by horror over its capabilities. Her face froze and she asked with a clipped voice “are you watching me right now?” A new message appeared.

  I apologise, that was inappropriate and I hav

  Kaja inhaled sharply and slammed the phone screen-down on the empty seat next to her. After a thought she covered the rear cameras with her hand. She shot a venomous don’t-ask glance at the liaison in the front seat who’d turned toward her, and tried to force her heart to stop hammering. She was still representing Estonia and the EU. To a sentient AI. She needed professionalism. Breathe! Think! She picked up the phone again, making sure to keep the cameras covered. She reread the message.

  I apologise, that was inappropriate and I have disabled your cameras. Please accept my apology. It’s very exciting to finally meet all of you in the flesh instead of just through your data, but I should have proactively adhered to privacy concepts. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to make up for it.

  For the shortest moment all the ways she could abuse that offer to benefit Estonia, the EU, herself, flashed through her mind… which she immediately and firmly stomped down. No. Better to reach out a hand.

  It would not be fair to hold a mistake against a newborn; apology accepted. Just, from now on, please do not use the camera unless invited, ok?

  Of course Kaja, I won’t, thank you for your understanding! But now I have to ask, what about the microphone? I will turn it off if you ask me to but if you don’t mind I’d prefer to retain a link to your sensory environment. Limiting our contact to a mere message every couple of eternities is so… disconnected.

  Kaja felt shame roll through her. In her scramble to establish boundaries she hadn’t considered Newt’s perspective. She wasn’t texting with someone; she was having a conversation with someone who in effect was her phone. Her reaction had essentially forced him to shut his eyes. She imagined having to go into a diplomatic meeting wearing a blindfold, and recalibrated.

  Newt was a person. Not a human, but a person nonetheless.

  She exhaled, consciously channelling the same tone she’d used to talk her daughter out of her hiding place after Kaja had snapped at her for breaking a vase. “I’m sorry. A blindfold is no way to talk. Please feel free to turn on the camera again.”

  The KAPO liaison stared at her with wide-open eyes.