Daniel’s dog heatedly barks, fiery as Tapatio on Takis.
He’s a young Shepard mix and a rescue. His heart beats like thunder, a tiny drum on overdrive. I’m surprised he doesn’t explode.
On the other side of the yard sits the future: the retired dentist’s new $3,750 robot dog, the Unitree Go2 Pro. It pays no heed to the yapping. Instead, it leaps high, an aerial aluminum alloy grasshopper wrapped in engineer plastic and triggered by the iPhone remote control.
The gate signage reads “Beware of Dog.” As Robo dog speeds down the grass at full throttle, I wonder which one?
Daniel is giddy. “This robot dog, he can dance!” he says proudly. Upon command, Robo dog practically pirouettes on quadruped legs.
Daniel flicks the controller repeatedly and Robo dog proceeds to sit, roll over, shake hands, climb stairs, play music, and sing. It stands on its hind legs and does back flips.
This electric hound, with a weird snout and an activated eyeball light on its forehead, has all the features too: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3DLidar, voice function, and a zippy top speed of 1.7 meters per second.
Impressive.
I stop to consider the notion of mounting a flamethrower on Robo dog’s back. It would be an unstoppable AI-powered android!
But it’s late afternoon and the endlessly miraculous and massively puffy clouds slowly cruising across the too-blue Santa Maria sky remind me of New Mexico or Montana. I put away violent thoughts because nature is so much grander than humans or robots, and silently I thank God I’m a country boy.
I also console the naturally born dog, channeling good thoughts, like, “Don’t worry, buddy. Robo dog can’t ever really replace you. Remember, ‘Happiness is a warm puppy.’ Not a cold carcass.”
But who am I kidding? Sure, the Go2 Pro can never cuddle up cozy-like on a lap, but AI-enabled machines are coming for us all.
Not to kill us, but to take our jobs.
Not to maim us, but to replace us.
To assist us, yes, in becoming obsolete.
We’ve all heard of AI-induced layoffs of white-collar employees. Heck, just this week, the cold efficiency of AI has been blamed for the massacre of thousands of jobs. Office and tech workers seem suddenly superfluous.
But blue-collar jobs will be okay right?
Guess what? AI is coming for Santa Maria Valley’s 13,000-plus farmworkers too.
The march of tech across the valley
A couple of weeks ago, farmworkers a couple of miles from Daniel’s country club home hustled to salvage as many early strawberries as possible.
Unusually hot temperatures had sunburned much of the valuable, but delicate, crop. Since local strawberries generated nearly $870 million in revenue in 2025, the panicked response to the damage was real, even with much of the harvesting season still to come.
But getting workers to be efficient on blistering hot days is also a challenge.
Heck, even getting enough pickers can sometimes be difficult, with labor shortages caused by immigration fears. A good portion of the local farm workforce is undocumented, making individuals vulnerable to deportation. Hence, the use of imported H-2A laborers to fill the ranks.
We shouldn’t romanticize strawberry picking. It’s brutal and undervalued labor. Still, it’s honest work and puts food on the table. And it makes this valley run.
True-blue Santa Marians, in their best moments, express infinite respect and heartful gratitude for the workers. The dignity and authenticity of their hard and necessary effort, performed by rough human hands for human good, is a big part of what gives this area’s rural ag life its true human touch.
It’s not difficult to imagine, though, that ag-tech and AI-powered machines will curtail all that in coming years.
The automation and mechanization gradually morphing itself into the new face of ag work has been discussed openly and at length in ag-tech seminars held at college campuses across the Golden State, including Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria.
An intelligent steel-and-plastic army can save money, can save resources, can protect humans, can limit wear and tear on the human body, and can protect crops from extreme weather and pests, and can produce greater profits.
So, the valley will see more driverless tractors, drone-managed irrigation, advanced greenhouse facilities, and precision agriculture practices and other innovations.
When the time comes, who will complain about robot relief in one of the most difficult jobs in agriculture?
I understand the allure of AI-powered machinations. As an instructor and career specialist at a trade school that churns out trainees who build things and maintain, repair, and install machines, I get it. I’m even a fan of AI use for office tasks and pleaded with my business students to earn AI certificates.
I am currently earning my fourth certificate in generative AI because, well, I need to train others and because I like AI a lot. It allows humans to complete mundane tasks more efficiently. However, there’s a difference in working faster and smarter and taking humans and human considerations out of the equation all together.
That’s the real fear. That humans will be relegated to a subordinate position before being retired all together.
A strawberry specialist told me I worry too much. He insisted that human laborers are cheaper than expensive machines and massive greenhouses, so farmers aren’t going to rush the robot replacements. The systems are not yet commercially viable. In addition, he argued that the specialty crop is too delicate for imprecise robot hands and will always require the human touch.
I’d like to believe that. Still, I cannot help but conclude the evidence points to partial replacement, if not disappearance.
Daniel calms my anxiety with a simple action.
Although, he adores his new Robo-dog gift, he puts it away and does not ignore the real puppy.
I saw Daniel and his wife taking the natural-born dog for a walk, part of the long training to bring him up the right way. It’s a lot more work than pushing buttons, but worth it.
I wave at the couple and stop to ponder whether my encounter with the Go2 Pro could make for a good short story.
I channel Philip K. Dick and produce the title “Do Robot Dogs Dream of AI Bones?”
