The Shyler Project: Meet the latest advancement in AI technology! by Naomi Norbez (call me Bez, e/he)
Content warning: Discussion of mental health, suicidal thoughts, & death. There is a happy ending.
Is this sci-fi or is this real life by now? • Half an hour • Choice-based • Twine
I keep thinking of “Schuyler sisters” with the title. But it’s probably instead a name based on “shy” since it’s a mental health chatbot.
The game likely revolves around discussing the main character, Jaiden, and their mental health, which includes suicidal thoughts (that accounts for the death). There’s a happy ending, so there is likely some sort of reconciliation at the end where Shyler helps Jaiden approach peace or contentment to convince them not to kill themself.
The first tag refers to the fact that AI is so prevalent nowadays, and one could probably engage in something similar to what Jaiden is doing with ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or one of the many other chatbot LLMs out there. But I was first reminded of Bohemian Rhapsody. The chiasmus between referring to reality first and then fantasy in the song and science fiction then reality in the tag is interesting. It really reflects how twisted (or advanced?) our world is today.
TLDR: look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now! Life has just begun but now I’ve gone and thrown it all away