Let’s be honest, does anyone really like chat bots?

We’ve all befriended that one relentless bot that sends a thousand notifications a day, and drives us to immediately regret ever connecting with the virtual world in the first place.

Everyone has a chat bot now. They’re unavoidable. Online shopping networks have traded “traditional” customer service instant messaging for an all-knowing bot. There are bucketfulls of Facebook Messenger bots for logging what food you ate today, counting the calories you burned in this morning’s exercises, booking a last minute hair appointment… Literally anything you can think of. Even smart devices have voice-activated bots that’ll have a full-on conversation with you. In essence, chat bots have become the new personal assistant.

Most of us never expected to have a personal assistant, let alone an all-inclusive, always-online super being, programmed into our lives. Basically, we all have that overly eager-to-please intern in our pockets, willing to bring us a cup of coffee at 3 AM if that’s what it takes to earn our favor.

Every time I step outside, I pass at least one person speaking a reminder into their smartwatch. Just a decade ago, people were still carrying around scratchpads and pens in their bags to scribble down appointments and shopping lists. But there are still a large number of people of all shapes and sizes who avoid, or just choose not to utilize, these virtual assistants. Why is that?

I (Emily) personally do not use the Siri function on my iPhone 6, unless I’m making a phone call while driving. Yelling at Siri for five minutes while she lists every person in my contacts list except for the one person I’m trying to call is still much, much easier than trying to tap buttons while navigating stop-and-go traffic. Meanwhile, my officemate (Ryan) speaks reminders into his Apple Watch multiple times on the daily.

If I have a question about a product and their website’s immediate-access customer service is a chat bot, I’ll opt to wait the 3 days for their general info email to respond to my inquiry than navigate the chat bot’s probing word vomit. But my mom will spend hours trying to steer a clothing site’s chat bot toward the question she wants, no matter how obnoxious it may be. (She likened a chat bot to “herding kittens” once, and yet she still does it.)

I guess it ultimately comes down to personal taste. I’ve seen I, Robot. I don’t trust robot intelligence. My mom has also seen I, Robot, and thinks every automated voice is Sonny. I guess only time will tell.

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