By Mary O’KEEFE

This weekend I spent time attempting to make up for the many weekends I was not busy. I cleaned and brushed out the endless tangles from my dog’s fur. I also did other things, like reviewing bills [very depressing] and following up with the pharmacist about a medication not yet refilled – even though it is on automatic refill. 

First of all, dealing with the AI [Artificial Intelligence] agent that answers the big brand pharmacy phone calls has changed –  a little. For one thing, the voice that answers the phone actually sounds like a real person rather than the automated voice we’ve come to expect. In the cases of the many pharmacies I called over the weekend, there was the voice of a pleasant young woman that answered the phone, which I guess was designed to fool me into thinking it was a real person on the line … though it was not. When AI answers and says, “I am able to answer many of your questions” what it actually meant is “I can only answer one question several times.” 

I did not want to renew a prescription nor did I want to check on the status of a prescription because I knew the status appeared to be frozen. What I wanted to know was when would the prescription be filled. I went through the automated pleasant voice system last week, ordered the meds that were on automatic renewal and was told, “Thank you – we are processing your prescription.” That was a lie because it was not being processed. 

All I wanted was the truth about what was going on with the meds. 

I am sure many of you can relate; at first when faced with AI responses you try to be polite; after all it may be a machine but being polite for many of us is a natural response. However, soon you turn into a screaming person demanding, “I want to speak to a human!” I, of course, was screaming in my car and when I looked at the person in the car next to me the driver just nodded; obviously she was  a kindred spirit who was able to relate to what I was going through. 

When I finally got to a human, I was told the medication was on “back order.” I asked what that meant and the pharmacist assistant said … very slowly … “It means it’s on back order.” 

I tried to maintain my composure as I said I understood the words but not the meaning. Does that mean another month, two, three – maybe never; what exactly did that mean? She responded that she had no idea. This was somehow comforting because at least it was an honest, human answer. When I asked if she had any suggestions as to what I should do, she advised me to contact other pharmacies – which meant more AI relationships I had to forge. 

I called several large pharmacies and had to listen to the same young AI woman’s pleasant voice telling me over and over that the pharmacy could help me – by not actually helping me. I found that at some pharmacies I had to leave my name and “someone would call me within an hour.” That was true; I would receive a call but when I answered the other end would hang up. 

So in fact a call was made; though nothing was said someone had called. Eventually someone would return a call – though that was after I called the pharmacy several times. I did receive a couple of voicemails from pharmacies but the phone never rang; I was just notified there was a message waiting. The smaller, independently owned pharmacies also had AI recordings but at least a human came on the line soon after; though the humans told me the medication was on back order they then talked to me about their frustration with the manufacturer and advised me to call my doctor to see what could be done. Even though this was not the answer I wanted, the interaction was so human I felt uplifted. 

Then I turned my attention to my bills. I did not want to call and talk to another AI so I just went online to pay but was told the password and/or online ID did not match its records. I gave up and turned to sci-fi … my go-to during frustrating days. 

I chose to watch the “X-Files” and the episode was from Season 11 Episode 7 titled “Rm9sbG932ZXJz” and, as usual, I could relate.

This episode was aired in 2018 and I remember watching it for the first time and thinking it was funny; however, watching it in 2026 is more terrifyingly ironic than funny. (If you haven’t seen the episode or it has been a while since you’ve seen it, watch it now before continuing to read.)

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) were at a restaurant. They were the only ones there. They ordered from a screen; the food slid out from under a counter. Scully’s order was what she had chosen but Mulder got a blob fish, a very weird looking fish. He tried ordering again but, frustrated, he gave up. When the bill appeared on his phone he paid. Then the application asked for a tip; he did not give a tip. Suddenly the lights went out. His credit card was stuck in the machine where he paid. 

The two agents had to escape the restaurant; Scully’s driverless ride arrived. She headed home. Mulder went to his car and told the autonomous system to drive him home. The overly happy robot in Scully’s car asked her what he could do to make her ride better and she told him to just be quiet. An unhappy face appeared on the screen and the car then took her on a fast trip in a vehicle she was trapped in … a fear of my own that keeps me out of a Waymo. 

In the meantime Mulder’s ride was pleasant – until he finds he was driven back to the restaurant. Mulder then did something that restored my faith that even in this AI world there is still a chance for humanity … he turned to the Thomas Guide. 

The episode continued with highlights of how the technology we so embrace is also watching and listening to us. At one point Scully throws her red hair cream away and a text immediately asks her to reorder the same hair cream. I don’t know about you but this type of thing has happened to me; I will talk about going somewhere or having to buy milk and I get a message from a grocery store or Amazon that milk is on sale. 

Mulder tries to stop payment on his credit card by going onto his computer. His screen saver is the picture of the iconic UFO with the words, “I Want to Believe.” The computer then asks, “What do you want to believe?”

This continues with Mulder and Scully being chased by drones, finding themselves in a Terminator-type factory surrounded by robots. And just as we think all is lost, the restaurant algorithm lights up on Mulder’s phone reminding him he has only a few seconds to leave a tip. He reluctantly does and the machines pull back. 

The interesting thing is how this episode began – a voice talking over a visual monitor recounting how in 2016 a machine-learning chatbot whose AI appeared to be an innocent teen girl was placed on Twitter [now X]. The AI chatbot was to learn from humans but within a day it had to be taken down because what it learned from human interaction was hateful and racist, among other bad traits. 

Ultimately, the warning “Humans must take care of teaching AI or one day we will be the ones deleted” should be heeded.

Our weather is not controlled by AI, at least not yet…. Our high heat and an extreme high heat warning will be in effect today but then things will start cooling down (a little) on Friday and through the weekend. Temperatures will tend to be more normal in our area at this time of the season – in the mid 80s. That should trend through the weekend with a little bump midweek to the 90s, then back to the upper-to -mid 80s. There is no rain predicted, according to NOAA, but the humidity will continue but will be as high as in the past week.