Laurel's old water cup had a bit of a leak. I told her it was crying. I said we'd had this cup for a year — for you that's just one school year, but for it, that's a whole lifetime. She froze, clutching the cup, and later she actually wrote about it for an essay — the words didn't quite land, but what they landed on was real guilt. The AI voice I can't stand is the exact opposite: every word is right, and together they weigh nothing.