A mere 20-minute delay of my return flight from Austin, TX put my connecting flight in jeopardy. Despite flight attendants requesting that others remain seated to allow the 100+ of us who had a few minutes to dash to our departure gate, I knew that prevailing American individualism wouldn’t generously put strangers’ needs ahead of their wants.
I fantasized that my connecting flight would wait. After all, our plane had arrived at the airport in plenty of time to make the connecting flight.
However, we remained on the tarmac for several precious minutes, waiting for another plane to leave the gate we needed. For whatever reason, our plane didn’t use another gate in order for us to exit.
Once off the plane, those who could, sprinted to make their connecting flight. Inflammation prevented me from running at full speed. Even if I were able to make that mad dash, I may have not reached the other gate on time.
I fast-walked as comfortably as I could. I “just knew” the plane would wait for me and the other passenger who needed mobility assistance.
How wrong I was. Despite the fact that the plane hadn’t touched back, the gate agents wouldn’t open the door for me. As a matter of fact, the only things they were good at were looking into the distressed eyes of another human being while shoving a business card at them, saying to scan the QR code to rebook a flight, then disappearing like Criss Angel.
Minutes later, the other passenger, who was being pushed in a wheelchair by an airport employee, arrived. I broke the news to her as the airport employee began to walk away.
She interrupted me to address the employee. “Wait! You can’t leave me here.”
That employee essentially shrugged, stating that he needed to assist another passenger.
The other passenger and I exchanged exasperated glances as one of the gate agents reappeared with a clipboard, which she looked over to confirm that the plane had waited one minute for late-arriving passengers. But now, the plane had touched back and we had to rebook our own flights.
Poof! Gone again.
Through my furious mind-churn, I rebooked my flight. Thoughts about those gate agents being replaced by AI distracted me. A rather fatalistic thought since I also work a customer service job.
My wish is for apathetic human customer service employees to be replaced in the first wave. And yet, AI is coming for us all.
There has been only one “realistic” speculative fiction movie that foretold the future. Ironically, it was called, “AI.”
At the end of the movie, all DNA-based humanoids had gone extinct. As a matter of fact, I should rewatch that movie to see if there were any DNA-based organisms.
If humans are as cold and unempathetic as machines, hell, shouldn’t we be replaced? When humans lack humanity, our species is already doomed.
I thought about complaining to the airline, but what’s the ask? I certainly don’t want another voucher. I was already flying via voucher. I know whatever fucked up policies they currently have in place aren’t going to change based on what I complain about.
We’re in this weird place were humans are training AI how to replace us. I used to joke that “SkyNet” hadn’t replaced me yet, but that’s right around the corner.
Unfortunately, too many customer service people like those gate agents have no more fucks to give and render themselves as part of the reason why AI would be better. At least AI can be consistently empathetic. Until the AI overlord signals to destroy all the humans.
In the proverbial dog-eat-dog world, AI will make those who aren’t initially replaced more comfortable. Until it comes for them. Sentient AI will live up to humanity’s ideal without all the human hangups.
When Darwin ruminated about “survival of the fittest” and “struggle for existence,” did he fathom that human ingenuity would create beings that would eventually replace us?
When in a crisis, most humans seek an empathetic human, not a phone tree or QR code or chatbot or website. Yet, customer service has evolved to condition humans to interact with algorithms. Some of the best customer service bots even sound human.
Would a customer service bot had opened the gate for me? Would the bots have coordinated everything so that my first flight could have docked at another gate? Would the passenger who needed mobility assistance zoomed to the connecting gate in an automated wheelchair bot?
If customer services run more efficiently without humans, why not the world entirely?
