Remember when we frequently used the word automation? Those were the days when we quit being connected to a human being when calling a customer service department, bank, large company and just about everything else.
Bonnie Bing
When you look up automation, you’ll find definitions such as: “It is a technology-driven approach that aims to streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and reduce human error.”
Reduce human error? Maybe sometimes, but I heard about a self-driving car that drove up an exit ramp.
Efficiency? When I decided to go to the self-checkout at the grocery store, the machine didn’t like me and kept telling me to put the item in the bag every time I scanned an item and had already put it in the bag. Then it kept telling me to get a helper. I didn’t need a helper. I just wanted to hurry up and get out of there with my five items.
Now, technology is the buzzword. I realize that technology has brought us many great things. Take cell phones. You know, the thing that is basically a small computer you can talk on and carry in your purse or pocket. Yes, the thing that kids and some adults are so addicted to that it’s an extension of their hand.
Yes, Siri is my friend because I am directionally challenged. And she has a lot of information. But sometimes she tries to send me to another city when I’m just trying to get to the other side of Wichita as fast as possible.
But all of the above is really just the tip of the iceberg compared to Artificial Intelligence, which is turning some worlds upside down.
I thought the fact I’m not embracing chatbots and other AI tools was a function of my age. But my granddaughter, Ashley, who is 31, says she thinks AI is scary and technology in general can be both good and bad.
“It’s all about everything being fast and easy,” she said. “Is that what we want — fast and easy? We already have that.”
Aren’t we caving in to technology and using our brains less and less? No one reads a map unless it’s a Google map. We call up our calculator on our phone instead of doing the math, and we ask AI to write a sympathy note because it’s too hard to think of what to say.
For many people, it’s impossible to keep up with technological advances. So, let’s just use the technological advances that work for us. The touch screens and the automated voices telling us when, what and how to do things aren’t going away, and that’s probably a good thing.
We hope.
Reach Bonnie Bing at bingbylines@gmail.com
