Artificial intelligence is creeping up on us--literally

Using maps plotted by human employees, the AI-powered cleaners will placidly traverse the aisles, sweeping and buffing as they go--just as blue-aproned human employees used to do (and still will, in Walmart stores without an Auto-C, as the robots are called). Perhaps the most striking thing about these robot workers is how not-striking they are. Sci-fi movies suggest a future full of humanoid robots who unnerve us with their "uncanny valley" qualities. Now the future is coming into view, and it looks like a giant Roomba. It's easy to imagine walking absentmindedly past an Auto-C on a shopping trip without even registering its presence.