Am I the only one who’s a little freaked out by the robots roving the aisles at BJ’s? My understanding is they are taking inventory. As they move through the store, they emit this little sound between a whistle and beep, and if they’re suddenly in your area, this sound can startle you. These little automated wonders likely do great work, but they unsettle me.

Looking through the Montgomery and Ward and Sears catalogs as a child, I circled a robot as a desired Christmas gift. Santa brought one. What it mainly did with the help of some flashlight batteries was light up, blink and awkwardly march. I thought it was quite amazing.

Scientists have since created robotic dogs to go into dangerous places so humans and real canines don’t have to. That’s a great idea. So is the science that allows for unmanned spacecraft. What I don’t especially like is when human workers lose jobs to automation.

We’re facing whole new territories today with AI (artificial intelligence) being talked about and used in all parts of our culture. Deals are being made to equip areas with the power needed to operate over many acres so AI companies can exist and it’s being done fast so other countries don’t become superior in these areas.

I attended a Christian writer’s conference this month that held a panel discussion on AI and its potential impact for writers. (The conference was online and I didn’t have to pay for travel, meals and lodging, so yes, technology can be beneficial.)

Two tech-minded writers and one website creator discussed AI. In talking about how some are, and will be, slower to adapt or accept this newer technology, one mentioned how the world changed once calculators came on the scene. (A few may even remember slide rules.) At first you couldn’t use then in math classes, but later they became the norm.

“Is it cheating?” the man asked. “Or is it a shortcut, faster and more accurate?” He added the same could be true of AI. “We need to see it as our creativity partner.”

Of course, cheating CAN be an issue, as with most new things. Students can use it to totally create their assignments. Essays for college admission, too. Even work projects.

For writers, as for others with creative properties, the question is will AI result in stolen creative works, books and articles even music, created the old-fashioned way from the heart and mind of an individual? These are fears, panelists said, but they also point to examples of some AI generated works where materials were put together and a closer look revealed “facts” that weren’t really correct at all. But some could think so in the future. Another thing to be cautious about. This is all a newer technology and the kinks need to be worked out, as well as taking an approach of common sense and our own intelligence.

Many publishing contracts now contain language where you have to sign off on the fact that no AI was used in generating the manuscript. That made sense to me. Panelists, however, said changes are being made to modern contracts because the science is being utilized more and more as writers are using it as a tool for efficiency. One writer stated that she is very active in its use for research and for walking through certain scenarios of her fiction. She does, however, then take the information and continues to create her own actual material.

As they described differences between ChatGPT, for instance, and Siri (or Alexa), I heard them say AI is getting to where it can actually think, whereas supposedly the others cannot yet do that. And AI works from a much larger data base of materials to gather information.

A few writers in attendance say they already embrace the technology for efficiency, while some stated their continued skepticism. It’s still scary to me. I remember “Star Trek

Generations” where the Borg “assimilated” Captain Picard! My question is, will AI someday completely take US over, leaving us unneeded to operate the world? Maybe it’s just a scaredy-cat’s way of thinking, but I can’t help but wonder such things as I see automation take over the jobs that people used to do and also wonder how future generations will make a living.

A friend tells a story of how their Siri (or Alexis, I forget which), made me wary enough. Her husband was downstairs and she was heading up the stairs, nowhere near their unit, and my friend said, “Don’t forget we need dog food.” They then heard the voice from elsewhere in the house calling out advice for which local stores would carry the dog food.

Maybe it will all work out for the best, but like the BJ robots, it’s all still pretty freaky to me

(Contact contributor Deb Wuethrich at deborahmarcein@gmail.com)