Next on the list of endangered professional species: reporter/blogger. It's already well under way. Companies like Demand Media already use to determine what "stories" will garner the most eyeballs and, thus, advertising revenue. It's a very short step to having them as well.

As someone who's overdosed on sci-fi stories where machines suddenly wake up one day and think, "What do we need humans for, exactly?" this is neither surprising nor welcome news.

Will the new AI make our lives easier in the long run by freeing up our gray matter for more creative endeavors, the way automation freed our bodies from manual labor? Or will we all just end up working for computerized bosses -- or worse, as lackeys to keep the machines up and running? (I'm sure at least some of my readers already feel that way.)

The machines are winning. Scratch that, they've already won. Let's just hope they don't realize it for a while.

Is there yet hope for humanity? Brighten my weekend with some words of optimism below, or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.