Learning Curve
For: @winterirondiscord Dum-E Appreciation Hebdomad - day 4: word day @tonystarkbingo - 3096 - K5: [image of Dum-E] (fill details below the cut)
Also on AO3
-----
He never meant to get attached.
It was just supposed to be an experiment; useful if successful, but mostly to prove that he could. He fully expected that within a few months of the grand reveal, he would have lost interest and broken it down again to repurpose the parts. After all, that’s all the robot is really, a bit of programming (half of it written while near-blackout drunk) in a bundle of spare parts.
Tony talked to the bot, of course, during coding, construction, testing. But he talks to all his projects; whenever something goes wrong, whenever something goes right, it doesn’t mean anything. In fact, as anyone can tell you, the real challenge is getting him to shut up.
But then he fully activated the AI.
It was a simple test: a verbal command to pick the red cube out of a pile of blocks, then carry it through some basic obstacles and place it in the matching slot.
Everything was going well… until the bot had almost reached the delivery point, and dropped the cube. Tony frowned – was something wrong with the claw pressure sensitivity? – and started to turn to check the code, but a movement drew his attention back to the bot. He hadn’t given any further instructions, so what…?
The claw tilted down towards the block on the ground, then back up towards him and rotated 30 degrees to the right.
In that moment, Tony realised three things:
He’d never programmed that sequence of movements.
A metal claw on a strut and base shouldn’t be able to so perfectly convey such adorable puzzlement.
His experiment had just gotten a whole heap more interesting.
Tony grins at the bot, whose very failure is a sign of greater and unexpected success.
“You are such a dummy.”
The newly-dubbed DUM-E places the block in the slot, then turns back to face Tony. And his claw opens in what is most decidedly a returning grin.