Breakfast With Grok

This morning my husband and I were casually chatting over breakfast, discussing where to take our friends from Florida who are arriving for a visit this week, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a woman joined the conversation. She was not in the room and I don't know her name, but her voice was coming in loud and clear from the vicinity of my husband's cell phone. 

What preceded this revolting development was this: Mitch, addicted as he is to technology, had asked Grok a question. I, an avowed Luddite, asked him, "Who's Grok?" Turned out it's one of those AI assistants that supposedly know everything. Okay, fine, if you say so. The question was, "What is there to do in Boothbay?" (I had already vetoed going there and Mitch was pushing for it.)

Mitch spoke his query into his iPhone, and the answer came back in written form. We continued talking, when suddenly a voice chimes in, very chummy, her sentences interjected with slang terms and "ya know" and "like" and laughing, like she was in the room with us, smoking a joint with her feet propped up on the coffee table.

I wanted to smash the phone. I kept shouting at her to shut up but she went on and on. Oh great, I thought, over-talkers are bad enough at parties but now, circa 2025, we have to put up with this not-real Chatty Cathy crashing our breakfast? I suppose I should be glad she didn't materialize in human form and demand a cup of coffee and a cheese omelet. (Mitch says that's still a few years away.)