Call to schedule car service, to arrange home repair or to make an appointment and you will likely be speaking with an AI agent. Pleasant, efficient and tireless, these agents can be a welcome change at times.
Nevertheless, the 130,000-year era of human communication has taken a major hit and, no doubt, it will only fade more rapidly in the future. Even now, AI agents are providing front line medical advice and referrals in underserved areas. More disturbing are the friendships and relationships that are developing between agents and lonely humans.
Of course, we are promised that "guardrails" will be in place to protect our privacy and security but we know that similar reassurances have proved ineffective in this modern digital age. Then again, the agents are especially nice.
