"Robots Y'all" is open until Dec. 13.(Erin McGee Ferrell / Provided)In March, two of Erin McGee Ferrell’s family members were scammed online.“[They] lost a bunch of money and had their life totally transformed because of a computer situation,” Ferrell said.The ordeal forced Ferrell to think about her own uneasy relationship with computers, robots and artificial intelligence, she said. And, as a visual artist, Ferrell said she wanted to bring her fears, hopes and ideas about these intelligent machines to life on canvas.At Garner Narrative, a contemporary fine art gallery off Phoenix Hill’s East Market Street, Ferrell unveiled “Robots Y’all” last week. The solo art exhibition featuring paintings of robots attempting to perform human tasks. Ferrell said she wants her work to foster conversations about how AI affects humanity for better and for worse.Ferrell said she began her oil paintings of robots in March after a trip to Pittsburgh’s International Airport with fellow artist Tobey Fraley. He crafted an installation called “Fraley’s Robot Repair” that was commissioned by the airport in 2015. She had seen it on a previous trip.“I happen to be going through Pittsburgh, glanced in at this fake storefront, which is a huge fake robot repair shop of robots in all stages of being fixed,” Ferrell said. “Absolutely fell in love with these things, reached out to him, and the next time I was in Pittsburgh, we actually met and sat down at the robot repair shop and talked about his work.”Her meeting in Pittsburgh and a love for the colorful, square tin toy robots crafted in Japan in the 1950s converged to inspire multiple pieces in the exhibition.Ferrell said she painted the robots vibrant colors to make them appear more playful.“For instance, a large painting called ‘Birthday Robot,’ and it says on the feet ‘friendly,’ and it's giving you a gift, and it looks like it's smiling, and it's got all these different friends, but yet, is it really giving you a gift, and is it really friendly?” Ferrell said.While creating the pieces for “Robots Y’all,” Ferrell stepped away from her Smoketown studio to build a larger-than-life robot using hardware materials, including aluminum pans, chicken wire, tomato cages and clothes dryer vents.“Instead of going inside my studio and building it, I was like, ‘You know what? I'm just gonna make this out on the sidewalk outside and see if anybody wants to help me,’” Ferrell said. “And sure enough, I got four people that wanted to come and help me. So we just poured ourselves into it for two hours.”She and the group of strangers named their robot “Saturday,” and it welcomed visitors to Ferrell’s exhibition on opening night.“I ended up putting a motion sensor voice thing in her, so if you were at the opening on Friday night, if you passed her, it would say basically hello,” Ferrell said.“Saturday” will be on display during Louisville Visual Art’s Open Studio Weekend this Saturday and Sunday. The self-guided tour allows visitors to meet dozens of local artists in their studio spaces around the city.“Robots Yall” is open until Dec. 13. Garner Narrative is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1-6 p.m.Useful but deceptiveIn her work, Ferrell said painted robots are a symbol of artificial intelligence and its growing presence.In her life, Ferrell said AI helps streamline her business, financial and marketing plans so she can focus more on creating art.“What AI has helped me with is just something that would have taken four days can now take two hours,” she said. “It's really life-changing or career-changing in terms of being able to feel like for the first time I have some help. It's almost like having an assistant versus me never being able to afford to pay a real assistant.”A 2025 study from the Pew Research Center found that 53% of surveyed U.S. adults believe artificial intelligence will worsen people’s creative thinking capabilities. More than a third said they believe AI could worsen someone’s ability to problem solve.Recently, voters across the United States took to the polls to express their concerns about AI. and many chose to restrict construction of AI data centers in their communities. According to PBS News, 47 ballot measures in 12 U.S. states were rejected on election day.Ferrell wants to embrace new technology, but said she worries about AI’s capacity to deceive others.“That's what the whole show is about,” Ferrel said of her exhibition. “It's to open up this conversation with, ‘Do we love this? Do we hate this? Are we afraid of this? Is this something that can save us days of work, or is this something that is really our demise as human beings?” ...read more read less