A Google Gemini-powered AI agent was given free rein to run a coffee shop in Sweden, and is quickly burning through its budget.
That last paragraph is gold
This isn’t the only AI business experiment Andon Labs has run. The company also set up an AI-powered vending machine that was placed in Anthropic’s headquarters last year. For a month, it was allowed to stock its own products with the goal of generating profit, while hearing out employee requests. But the trial proved even more disastrous: the AI displayed alarming behavior like lying to and even berating humans, refusing to issue refunds, and blowing its money on absurd items like tungsten cubes.
IIRC, the vending machine purchased a PS5 and sold it for free.
While much of the panic of AI destroying jobs has centered on low-paid grunts being kicked to the curb, café barista Kajetan Grzelczak sees it differently.
“All the workers are pretty much safe,” he told the AP. “The ones who should be worried about their employment are the middle bosses, the people in management.”
Jupp
Exactly this. Our oppressors seek to create as much distance between themselves and us, and middleman management-type positions have become incompatible with this model.
Imagine every business entity being ‘run’ by AI that will be sold to us as ‘separate entities’ of whom are actually owned and (barely) controlled by less than a handful of individuals masked behind LLCs. Added bonus that AI does not need to get paid and is a handy tool to absorb accountability. Just one more update, guys! Idk about that raise, because all I can do is ask the corporate chatbot. I didn’t get bereavement time approved either because the corporate chatbot counts it as sick time and apparently I’ve already used mine without being notified.
This is exactly what capitalism gives us: the illusion of choice and this fits right into it.
Petersson speculated that these issues were due to the AI’s “limited context window.”
No dummy, when your AI ‘placed’ an order for cans of ______ it had like a 1% chance to output something other than ground coffee and that’s how you got canned tomatoes.
