Through the years, I have quoted a comment my grandfather repeated over and over when a new convenience came along. As soon as automobiles had options for power steering, power brakes or electric windows, snow blowers were available and electric toothbrushes were new, he would say, “People are getting lazier and lazier all the time.” Considering news today is flooded with information debating both worries and benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI), my grandfather must be spinning in his grave about now.

What seemed AI at the time first occurred for me when Mother began bringing home encyclopedias from Safeway along with the groceries in the early ’50s. I marveled at pictures of the world as she read parts of each book to me. Of course, our first television in 1955 enabled further discovery of what the world had to offer. When transistor radios came on the scene, Dad could tune in Paul Harvey at noon if the fish weren’t biting.

The convenience of AI was truly experienced as seniors in high school when a slide rule was a required element for math class. Multiplying, dividing, calculating squares and square roots, tangents and more happened without ever picking up a pencil. In college, AI ushered in an easier life when Texas Instruments introduced hand-held, battery-operated calculators. Pencil lead was further spared as we added and subtracted electronically, balancing checkbooks. Still, life’s conveniences didn’t stop coming.

More arrived in the ’70s when telephone receivers switched from rotary dial to push buttons and were no longer tethered to the wall. Today, conversations don’t even depend on a phone. Your watch can do the job. A slide rule isn’t needed to calculate square roots. Instead you simply say, “Hey Siri, what’s the square root of 625?” – and she tells you. Neither is a road atlas required to deliver you to Timbuktu. Just tell Google maps to show you the way. Collateral damage from AI and new conveniences, however, is observed when a cashier doesn’t know how to make change for your $6.55 purchase if a register isn’t handy when you fork over a ten-dollar bill along with a nickel.

Further advancements came along. Convinced in the ’80s that a computer was just the ticket to expedite writing letters, I splurged on an IBM with two 256K floppy disc drives, an RBG (color) monitor and Okidata printer. A loan from the bank was needed to pay for it. A few years later, it all sat on a card table with its Pac-Man game running, ready for garage sale customers to pour in. Unsure how to dispose of the outdated equipment, it felt like a homerun when the entire outfit sold for $100, thanks to a young lad relentlessly pestering his mother to buy it for him.

Although some misguided students now access ChatGPT to help fulfill school essay assignments, teachers and college professors report such work is easily detected and penalties are imposed for sake of fostering CI (cerebral intelligence). Even so, more and more of us lean on gadgets to accomplish daily chores that at one time required mental or physical effort.

Life is easier when we command Siri or Alexa to locate what we want to know or to do what we wish accomplished, then wait for the solution to arrive. As a result, rudimentary skills for basic tasks have been lost in many cases. Cars drive and park themselves now while bills are paid automatically without need to write a check or track a bank balance. Folks don’t even get off their keisters to start the car, turn off the lights or lock the back door. One can’t help but dream about the next AI convenience that will save time, effort and make life easier.

Me? All I want for Christmas now is reason to say, “Hey Alexa, make me a turkey sandwich on wheat, easy on the mayo–and step on it.” People are getting lazier and lazier all the time. And, you can quote me on that!