MAIM and the Careless Use of Social Graces

I met Eduardo Pontos (Eddy) years ago at a Rick Von Schmidt concert (friend of Bob Dylan). We kept in touch over the years. Anyone knew that Eddy was a genius of engineering but "pas de manières". He asked me to come visit him. I went and Raffaella (Raffa), his long suffering partner, opened the door: "Ciao bella!". "How is he?" Raffa just shook her head and rolled her eyes. She had long lost count of how many jobs, assignments, investors and opportunities they missed with Eddy's temper. He would make a brilliant new invention/gadget/method and Raffa would write and publish a technical summary. They always had many inquiries and requests for meetings and demos. Eddy would do the presentation but insult anyone who asked questions telling them that they were too stupid to understand. He would lose his temper and walk out. On his way home he would stop by La Senza to buy expensive lingerie to show he was sorry. Raffa would ask "Why can't you be nicer?" he'd always say "I'm not a nice man". They did OK with money from maintenance, royalties and the few clients who put up with him because whatever he built was exquisite. Raffa told me that eventually she convinced him to make a machine to enhance social graces, and he did.

He was on his way back from the first test run with live public. I noticed a copy of Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" on the desk and asked "AI based? Is this for training?". Raffa nodded just when the door flew open and Eddy rushed in. "How did it go?" he ignored us and connected the contraption he was carrying to the big screen on the back wall. I could see an array of cameras and microphones. "This is my Manners AI Monitor (MAIM). Watch!". Great name, I thought. The screen showed Eddy in a meeting room with an older man (a tag said Bob) and a younger woman (a tag said Tammy). A timeline ran at the bottom of the video and it would turn gray, green, amber or red as MAIM analyzed the conversation. Eddy pressed PLAY and clicked on a green portion, we heard the audio: "Thank you for taking this meeting" Eddy was beaming. He skipped some grays saying it's just technical stuff and played the next green "I like your tie, Bob". We couldn't believe our ears. Eddy would proudly play all the greens: "That is a very interesting comment" and "What great questions". Towards the end there was a green turning amber and then a huge red blob. Eddy went there and we heard him say: "Tammy, you have a very nice smile" Tammy mumbled "Thank you". Eddy quickly added "and really magnificent breasts". Tammy, white knuckles, red face walked out the door. Raffa and I looked at each other and Eddy said "She really had great boobs, I show social graces. WHAT?". That is when I noticed the bag by the door, it was pink with white stripes: the colors of La Senza.