Zhang Wei was the last person to leave the office.
Not fired. Contract expired, not renewed. The HR email used passive voice: "Your role responsibilities have been covered by the AI system."
Like describing weather.
Six months later.
Zhang Wei found a new job at a startup. Role: review AI-generated drug target data. Salary: one-third of her old one.
She opened the file. The first entry was wrong.
She recognized that protein - she'd sequenced it herself in 2021. Found an unusual structural feature. Published in a low-citation paper.
The AI hadn't read that paper. It labeled: Standard target, confidence 94%.
She stared at the screen, remembering the HR email: "Your role responsibilities have been covered by the AI system."
She opened the annotation field.
Two hours later, seven problems found. Submitted.
Platform reply: task complete, payment within 72 hours.
Gray text at the corner: This task was AI-assisted. Review efficiency improved by 340%.
She closed the screen.
Outside, the first cicadas had started singing.
Covered. 340x efficiency. But the AI missed what she remembered from 2021 - a paper nobody read, a protein nobody cared about, until a human who actually sequenced it looked at the data and said: this is wrong.
Bilingual version at wdsega.github.io
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