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With their new show, Bebeвs Bots, the Eagle Rock artists and husband-and-wife team known as вDavis & Davisв introduce the character of a precocious youngster who has recently moved to California from the suburbs of Paris. To assuage her loneliness, she is on a quest to buy a friend.

The little girl in the pumpkin-colored dress and the white go-go boots is speculating on the perfect robot. She certainly has a variety of choicesвdoes she want one that is sweet-faced, scary, imperious or humanized? Perhaps sheвs being too picky.

вBebe represents every little girl or boy,в says Denise Davis. вShe worries about being accepted and having friends. Sheвs a little snobbyвeverything has to be just rightвand she has excuses for all of them. Theyвd probably all be fine and do the jobвif sheвd just let them.в

If you're anything like me, you're disappointed about the nature of the role robots are playing in our world. First of all, there is definitely no robot cleaning my apartment or fetching me drinks, as was promised by cultural texts as diverse as "The Jetsons" and The Sharper Image catalog. Nor is there a friendly bot to toss me a lightsaber at just the right moment. Now it turns out that instead of making life easier or better, robots may be working to put me out of work.

As part of a strong series examining whether robots will steal a variety of our jobs, Slate's Farhad Manjoo asked whether the position of "writer" is endangered by advanced technology of the sort employed by Automated Insights, publisher of websites such as FriscoFan.com, which contains recaps of San Francisco Giants games that were written by a computer.