2025, Business, Media, Movies, Technology

I Robot

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A wave of nostalgia hit me yesterday when I went to get a gift card for YA’s stocking.  When I was a kid, my folks would drop me off in front of the movie theater, I’d meet up with my friends, plunk down my buck, get the popcorn, find a seat, see the movie.  No checking a website for availability, no buying the tickets ahead of time, no assigned seats. 

When I walked into the Southdale AMC, it looked very similar to the photo in the header.  Just a bank of screens but no bodies whatsoever.  For years I’ve left movie arrangements to YA, so I had to idea that people had become quite so irrelevant to the process.  These days you can still buy a ticket from one of the automated kiosks but apparently most people buy the tickets online, choose their assigned seat and just go straight to the “ticket taker”.

If there was a way to get a gift card at a kiosk, I couldn’t figure it out, so I asked the ticket taker.  Apparently you do still need a person to get a gift card; he took care of it for me.  I thought about it as I went back to the car; nobody lets customers sell themselves giftcards at the self-checkout.  I suppose that there are just a few too many ways that the sale can go catty-whompus.  This was proved correct about 15 minutes later at Trader Joes.  I’m not sure what happened but even the cashier couldn’t make the cards scan properly.  The supervisor who got called over couldn’t figure it out either.  Eventually they did total out my groceries and then do a whole new transaction for the gift cards. 

I’m pretty sure that eventually they’ll figure out a way to automate giftcards and then there probably won’t even be a ticket taker when you go to the movies.  They’ll most likely AI the popcorn and pretzels one of these days!

What’s something that’s been automated these days that surprised you?

28 thoughts on “I Robot”

  1. I am having day surgery next month. I was filling out a questionnaire yesterday when, 75 minutes into it, their system crashed. They sent me a message, without apology, to start over. This time it would not let me list all of my specialists. But I finished. Three hours it took. And the thing is, they have every piece of that information in my electronic file.

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    2. I wondered about the medical establishment for years. I had to have a hysterectomy in 1993. Every year after that for years I would go in for my annual appointment and somebody filling out a form at would say and when was your last period? And I always calmly replied April 1993. The form filler outer would look a little longer at my file and then be very embarrassed. I’ve always wondered if they don’t ever access the information on the files, why do they keep the files?

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  2. We still have a real person taking tickets at the Winona 7 theaters – at least last time I went! It would really put me of to have to deal with a machine there, too.

    I hate how hard it is to talk with a real person dealing with the fallout from our account being hacked last week. And for getting help with a AAA question. And… companies are cutting corners by hiring fewer phone people, and it ends in longer wait times across the board. Grrrrr….

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  3. No surprises. Just annoyance.
    Medicare extra plans sales calls.
    Recurring subscriptions.
    YouTube walkin tub ads.
    YouTube roof replacement ads.
    YouTube financial planning ads.
    YouTube FOX News stories.
    AI fake videos of babies with dogs.

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    1. Watch out for the Medicare extra plans sales calls. They are phishing schemes trying to get access to your data. I got an email from Medicare warning about them. Medicare does not call you.

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      1. My most recent irk is the tracking of my watching Dodo, a site that highlights stories of animals being rescued. Now I get fake videos of pets saving babies or barking with dogs. I cannot “like” anything seen on line except here.

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  4. I have had the experience a few times lately where I have visited a store but bought nothing or mentioned a brand or product at home to Robin and suddenly ads for that brand or product started appearing in my news feed. Does my phone have a listening mode, I wonder? Siri is not activated. It seems like too much of a coincidence.

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    2. I think Siri is listening unless you have deliberately turned her off. We have had a couple of instances when Hans and were talking to each other and where one or the other of us used an obscenity, and Siri would pipe up to tell us to watch our language.

      There have been several instances where I have clicked on a link, posted here on the trail by one of the baboons, that turned out to be an ad to a particular item we were discussing. Next thing I knew, I began receiving email offers of that very item. Danger lurks everywhere. I’m extremely careful around AI. Some of it is obviously generated by AI and doesn’t pretend to be “real,” but lots of it is not so benign.

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        3. Yes, Bill, you can disable Siri on your iPhone or iPad. I have done so on my phone, as I never use it. Hans uses the app on his frequently. You can Google how to disable Siri, it’s pretty easy.

          The conversation we were having was in person at the dinner table. His phone was within reach even though it wasn’t in use when the above incident occurred.

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        4. Interesting! When I Googled the question: “when Siri is not activated, is it really off or still listening but not responding?” all of the responses provided solutions to fixing the problem of Siri not working. Not a single answer was responding to whether or not Siri spies on us even when the app is disabled?

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    4. It’s kind of gotten to the point where I think it’s beyond Siri and beyond your phone and beyond Alexa. I think perhaps there are air currents that are picking up our brain waves. Was that in 1984? If you see me wearing a hat made of aluminum foil anytime soon you’ll know why.

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  5. Now my pharmacy ordering app is messed up. They update the app. But when download it, it gives me the old one, which will not allow me to order drugs. So back to calling, which is fine. However, I don’t know when they are ready for pickup. My whole day has been a battle with this sort of tech. Their techies say it has to be my fault. Done and dusted.

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  6. Last year, I was having lunch at a large senior living facility that opens its dining room to the public. A human waitress took our order, but it was delivered to our table by a robot. That is something I didn’t expect.

    I actually like being able to order movie tickets online and choose my seats. I have no nostalgia for the days of waiting in a long line only to find out the show was sold out, or hunting in the semi-darkness for decent seats.

    Siri/Alexa aren’t the only gadgets in your house that spy on you. “Smart” TVs track what you watch and share the data. Since we’re getting a new TV soon (the first in many years), I found an article about how to turn off that features–they don’t make it easy.

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      1. In mid-October cancelled my entire Amazon Prime account. The process wasn’t so hard at all. The mystery, though, is why I can still get Amazon Prime on the smart TV. We unplugged the Alexa and are getting used to life without that assistant.

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  8. Better Late Than Never,

    What a busy day–but here I am now! Clearly AI failed me when I told it to post something on the Trail. No robot here.

    Sunday November 16 is Blevins Book Club at my house, 2pm.

    John Scalzi–When the Moon Hits Your Eye hint: I did not read it.
    Mary Shelly Frankenstein–hint: I did not like it

    I am a very negative person about these selections, but I have a very cute, if bitey, puppy who will make the trip to my house worth it.

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    1. I was not able to get the Scalzi book. I got an audio book of Frankenstein. I really did not know how grim the original book was. I’m not all that familair with any film versions either, except the Mel Brooks parody for which I’m eternally grateful.

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