To my great delight, Monday’s e-mail brought the page proofs of my short story “Dog Helps Those,” which will be in the next issue of DreamForge magazine.  It’s lavishly illustrated in color by art director, Jane Noel.

Because I was so pleased, I decided to sit down and start reading the proofs that afternoon.  When I opened the document, Adobe Reader decided to offer me an AI summary.  As I was about to remove it, I found myself reading instead, and was astonished at how utterly incorrect it was.

For your delectation, here it is:

Overview:  This document describes a dog’s encounter with a mysterious elderly woman named Sylvia. Sylvia’s encounter with the dog is described as a tense and mysterious situation involving a dog and a manfriend.

I don’t want to offer spoilers for those of you who weren’t at Bubonicon when I read the story, so I’ll just say that the only thing that is correct is that there is a character named Sylvia (but she is neither mysterious nor elderly), and she does meet a dog.

This is the first time that Adobe Reader supplied a summary without request.  I’ve turned down numerous offers to give me one, but as I mostly use Reader for contracts, I really prefer to read them myself.  (Yes.  I do know I can alter the settings so I don’t get these Overviews.)

I was amused that this short “overview” used the word “mysterious” twice.  I did a document search, and the word is never used in the story, nor is the word “mystery.”  I was also interested that the word “dog” was used three times.  Where “manfriend” came from, I have no idea!

I found myself hoping that magazine editors are not using these programs as first readers.  And I also hope that people who are sent important documents to read and sign don’t trust their fates to such summaries.

To do so would definitely be a tense and mysterious choice!