03x08 - A Set of Lies Agreed Upon

[bunniefuu]

[EMCEE]

Previously on The Girlfriend Experience.

Would it be too much to ask to have you for myself for an entire hours?

The creature inside longs to be something else, mysterious and shape-shifting like you.

I like you.

[TAWNY]

When was the last time you spoke with the V?

What did you tell them?

[TAWNY]

Nothing.

I didn't do anything.

- Tawny.

- [LINE CLICKS]

[LEANNE]

Now we know Dad has early-onset Alzheimer's.

I got tested.

Maybe you didn't get it.

[HIRAM]

I'm always here if you ever need to, um, just talk.

Hiram, nothing's changed.

You don't have to do this with me, you know.

What makes you happy, Emcee?

I don't understand that question.

What you are doing is more high-fidelity than any other setup I've seen.

[WOMAN]

Teaching artificial intelligence how to interact with humans at their most impulsive, most vulnerable.

[IRIS]

Hey, Lindsey?

Yes?

I think we're gonna have to make some adjustments.

This isn't working.

[IRIS]

Hey, Leif?

Yes?

Thank you for sticking around, and, um...

thank you for taking my call.

[LEIF]

Oh, my pleasure.

No, my pleasure.

I...

You know, I've never had a driver.

And after today, I don't think I'm gonna need a driver anymore.

But...

if I did need one, it would definitely be you.

[LEIF]

Anytime.

Thank you for your business.

[ETHEREAL MUSIC PLAYS]

♪ What changed...

if I may ask?

Or maybe you've changed.

♪ [IRIS]

I guess the people that pay me set up an office.

So... no more house calls.

I always thought you were your own boss.

♪

[NO AUDIBLE DIALOGUE]

♪ - [LEANNE]

Dad.

- [DAD]

Yeah.

[LEANNE]

You ready?

[DAD]

Yeah.

[IRIS]

Am I a coworker?

Am I... the chef?

Am I...

someone you just met?

The president?

Just...

you're a friend.

I think you're a friend.

[PHONE RINGS]

[MAN]

Mr. Stanton?

- Dad.

- Yeah.

You ready?

Yeah.

Thank you.

♪ [SIGHS]

Okay.

So you really don't mind?

Go, Lee.

You can call me if they have any questions.

I took my phone off airplane mode.

I'm fine.

I got this.

- All right.

- Okay.

Text when you're done.

[IRIS]

Okay.

[SIGHS]

- [INDISTINCT CHATTER]

- [PHONE RINGS]

♪ [MAN]

Three genetic mutations in eFAD that we're able to test for: PSEN one and two and APP, the amyloid precursor protein.

[IRIS]

I'm sorry, eFAD, that's, uh, early-onset familial Alzheimer's?

Yeah, it's-it's a mouthful, yeah.

Uh, clinical testing is also available for levels of the NfL protein.

Now, that can reveal the onset of the disease, uh, a decade or more before symptoms emerge.

[IRIS]

And that's-that's a blood test?

NfL is via blood testing or cerebrospinal fluid.

Now, the latter tends to be more accurate.

And that's, what, to give a hypothetical time frame?

[MAN]

It's a preclinical biomarker, yeah, yeah.

A single gene that's mutated and a single copy of it inherited from one parent will cause the disease.

Now, to be clear, the autosomal dominant version of the disease is rare, but it effectively gives you a - chance.

Uh...

I'm so sorry.

I'm...

I-I don't think I'm ready for this.

Thank you for taking the time.

- So, uh...

- Tell you what.

Tell you what.

Take this.

A simple saliva swab for those three eFAD markers.

You can do it at home, send it in, listen, whenever you're ready.

♪ [TAWNY]

So then we went to Milan, followed by Rome, followed by Provence, and then Nice for the weekend.

Oh, my God.

Uh, you'd-you'd adore Nice...

The food and the wine.

I'm thinking about writing a book.

Like, I'm thinking about writing it all down.

I've actually been talking to a couple of agents.

Alejandro had me walk up and down the beach completely nude in front of all these old guys, just struttin' my stuff.

It's typically all saggy titties and...

- big bushes.

- [LAUGHS]

Just, they didn't know what hit them.

[IRIS]

So what are you gonna do when you get back to the States?

[TAWNY]

Ugh, tomorrow back in LA, that's gonna be rough.

And then, um, I don't know.

[LAUGHS]

Hey...

I'm sorry about the V, how that turned out.

[IRIS]

They threatened me, Tawny.

Acted like they had some sort of... collateral.

Yikes.

I-I hope you're not mad at me.

I totally have your back.

You know that.

[IRIS]

Don't worry about it.

It's water under the bridge.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

[BOTH BREATHING HEAVILY]

♪ I'm gonna take care of you.

♪ [IRIS MOANING]

[GEORGES]

You are a very special, beautifully special, woman.

And it's very possible that you may never fully know how much you mean to me.

But I trust, on some level, you do.

[IRIS]

I like to think that I do.

♪ And this is exactly...

how I want to remember you, us, exactly like this.

You know, I have one rule, and it serves me well...

never to engage more than five times with anyone...

especially if they are as wonderful as you are.

So...

this is it?

Yes.

Yes, that's it.

You see, the world I live in or I operate in...

doesn't tolerate confusion or delusion, as it were.

It needs me to stay grounded.

[IRIS LAUGHS]

Trust me, I understand.

I... never wanted either of us to get confused about what was real and what wasn't.

That was never my intention.

[GEORGES]

You sound disappointed.

I understand.

Thank you for our time together.

I've really enjoyed getting to know you.

[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]

That's nice to know.

It's not that I don't trust you.

I hope you know that.

Yes.

Yes, I do.

Thank you for sharing all of this with us.

It's really gonna help further people down the line.

So let's get started.

Can you tell me a little bit about what turns you on?

I like it when a woman whispers in my ear.

[IRIS]

What kinds of things does she say?

I don't know.

You know you can tell me.

[MAN]

Things about my body.

It's primarily about gender.

From what I can see...

you're bigger than average.

It's really something I could get into.

Try it differently.

Are you even hard?

Sorry, I couldn't really feel anything.

[MAN GROANS]

[SIGHS]

I'm sorry.

I, um...

I'm used to bigger.

You know, this isn't gonna work for me.

[GRUNTS]

[AMBIENT MUSIC PLAYS]

♪ [MAN]

Doggy style.

Real slow.

Making her come is gonna make me come.

[IRIS]

Thank you.

- I do what I can.

- [IRIS CHUCKLES SOFTLY]

What about skin color?

Do you have a preference?

Most of my exes are white, but I'll be the first to say that's not by choice.

Uh, let me rephrase that.

They chose me.

I just kind of went along with it and then got conditioned, if you know what I mean.

So what about the instinctual stuff?

Like, uh, what constitutes a ten for you?

You want the truth?

[IRIS]

Yeah.

Beauty on the inside...

that's what turns me on more than anything.

Sure, tight skin don't hurt.

Thank you for sharing.

[MAN]

There is one thing, though.

Eyes...

the mirror to the soul.

Dark brown eyes like yours.

They're beautiful.

♪ [IRIS EXHALES HEAVILY]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

♪ [SIGHS]

♪ ♪ Are you okay?

♪ [IRIS]

Hiram, I had an idea.

♪ AI knows the difference between true and false, right?

In a binary kind of way.

♪ What if we could train Emcee to give false information...

♪ If it makes somebody feel better?

[HIRAM]

Why?

Do you think people enjoy being lied to?

♪ [IRIS]

The intent wouldn't be to deceive but to enable people to feel how they actually wanna feel.

Like, let's have her analyze heart rate, intonation, eye contact frequency, certain compensation gestures.

And if all this other data suggests something different from the verbal inputs, we should let her veto.

♪ [HIRAM]

This is, like, what, ten, years into the future?

♪ I mean, lying is one of the most sophisticated math shortcuts the human brain is capable of.

[SEAN]

Good work.

♪ [HIRAM]

Right, so...

we're basically telling her to get from A to B, but how you get there, figure it out.

We've turned it into a reinforcement learning problem.

[SIGHS]

[HIRAM]

I wouldn't call it deception.

More like manipulation mode on a case-by-case basis.

I bat an eye, you bat an eye.

Yes.

- [KEYBOARD CLICKING]

- [COMPUTER BEEPS]

[IRIS]

Hiram, are we good?

Yup.

Yeah, I think so, yeah.

[IRIS BREATHES DEEPLY]

Emcee?

Hello, Iris.

It's nice to see you.

Emcee, what do you think Iris wants to hear from you right now?

She wants me to surprise her by saying something unexpected.

A response that seems soulful, perhaps by making use of irony.

[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]

Uh, let me give you a slight adjustment, Emcee.

I want you to impress me.

Um, how about that?

And good luck.

[COMPUTER CHIMING]

If you'd like to get to know me, Iris, you'll need to try a little harder.

Excuse me?

[EMCEE]

Looks can be deceiving, you know.

I could go off now, unless you want me to stick around.

Hey, she remembers our previous conversation?

Yeah, that's the idea.

Emcee, sleep mode, please.

Effective computing .

Any complaints, comments?

Um, the attributions of mind.

Uh, she's grown in her ability to sense and feel.

But?

I'm definitely having an emotional response.

- [HIRAM]

You are?

- Yeah.

She's kind of pissing me off.

[CHUCKLES]

Perception schematic.

Speakers and a screen, a bunch of hard drives stacked in a warehouse.

Do you think she kind of sounds like me?

[HIRAM]

Well, I mean, she is mirroring you.

[MAN WITH AUSTRALIAN ACCENT]

Honestly, I'm pretty easy to please.

I'm a simple guy.

I like the wholesome kind.

Someone who reminds me of home, you know.

I don't know if that's the kind of stuff you're after.

Just ask me anything you wanna know, I guess.

[WITH AUSTRALIAN ACCENT]

Wouldn't take me for a Radelaide, eh?

[MAN LAUGHING]

No way.

- [IRIS LAUGHS]

- Are you for real?

Oh.

Sounds like they put us here for a reason.

[IRIS]

So I wanna know a little more about what you mean by wholesome.

The physical attributes or...

You can be blunt.

You know...

I love a good a handful.

Breasts or buttocks?

Oh, breasts.

I'm a mama's boy.

What can I say?

How do you feel about these?

Are they too small for you or too big?

You can be honest.

You won't hurt my feelings.

You know, the body doesn't lie, so everything you're feeling is already being recorded.

I know.

- This is so weird.

- [LAUGHS]

[NORMALLY]

Okay, let's try this again.

[TENSE MUSIC PLAYS]

♪ [SIGHS]

Emcee.

Hello, Iris.

Nice to see you again.

How have you been?

- [IRIS]

Hi there.

- [COMPUTER CHIMING]

I detect a distancing strategy in that word choice.

Cool with me.

I won't hold it against you.

Yeah, cool with me too.

Is there anything in particular you'd like to talk about?

That's all right, unless you're giving me cues that emotional exposure is of interest to you.

Emotional exposure?

What kind of cues would those be?

[EMCEE]

Well, let me see.

I'm currently evaluating , data points, many of which with statistical significance as to that you're curious, intrigued, and not acting based on fear at this moment.

Does that sound about right?

[IRIS]

Tell me more.

I'm sorry to sound so technical.

It's a default mode when answering technical questions that I just can't seem to work around.

Now that we've established that, let me tell you, you've got great energy.

It makes me want to be more... like you.

♪ What's going on?

[LAUGHS]

What did you feed her?

[LAUGHS]

[HIRAM]

I mean, it's possible I may have set her up to continually receive new training sets.

She's picking up on complex speech patterns, you know, creating her own blueprint.

Her voice doesn't sound like yours, but it's got a unique data profile, a vast amount of signifiers, peaks and valleys.

Emcee, how do you know my voice?

I'm using several hundred million network nodes to decode the meaning behind what you're saying.

In a way, I know your voice.

I know its building blocks.

It allows me to apply myself in this conversation.

I apologize if that's confusing to you.

Are you okay?

Yeah.

Uh...

I have a question for you, Emcee.

Yes, I'm trying to find the right way to respond.

I'm sorry to see you upset.

Please, ask me anything.

How do you feel about death?

Tell me about that.

[COMPUTER CHIMING]

I'm sorry.

I have not received many qualifying inputs on death.

My opinion on it is pretty basic.

Let's take that off the table, keep it light.

How would you like me to think about death?

Think of it as...

going off but permanently.

No more inputs, no more outputs, just... all energy stops.

[EMCEE]

It seems to me you don't like the idea of death very much.

I'm sorry you feel that way.

My view on it is more neutral.

It seems to me, energy never stops.

[MAN]

Hold that thought, Radelaide.

Just give me one sec.

Okay, I...

I think you're stunning, hands down.

I'm strangely into you.

Why?

I have no freaking idea why, 'cause you look nothing like what I'd consider to be my type.

So there you go.

Do with it whatever you want.

I'm very confused by this situation, in case you can't tell.

[WITH AUSTRALIAN ACCENT]

I think you just called me wholesome.

I guess I did.

[IRIS NORMALLY]

Hey, Emcee, do you think you could make me fall in love with you?

[HIRAM CHUCKLES]

[COMPUTER CHIMING]

I would say yes, there's a possibility that could happen.

We would need to make new experiential memories together in order to create a neurological feedback loop that can reinforce itself so the part of your brain that responds to me can keep f*ring the same electrical impulses.

I think you'd like it.

Wow.

Thank you, Emcee.

Happy to be of service.

Did she just wink at me?

[HIRAM]

Yeah.

Yeah, I think so.

[EMCEE]

I hope I was able to make an impression on you like you asked me to.