McDonald’s is removing artificial intelligence (AI) powered ordering technology from its drive-through restaurants in the US, after customers shared its comical mishaps online.
A trial of the system, which was developed by IBM and uses voice recognition software to process orders, was announced in 2019.
It has not proved entirely reliable, however, resulting in viral videos of bizarre misinterpreted orders ranging from bacon-topped ice cream to hundreds of dollars’ worth of chicken nuggets.
McDonald’s told franchisees it would remove the tech from the more than 100 restaurants it has been testing it in by the end of July, as first reported by trade publication Restaurant Business.
If you cannot get the right burger from an Al customer service bot, it is not an appropriate tool for education, tutoring, or any other high-stakes task.
It’s not an appropriate tool for those things, no. But this is a fallacious statement. These companies are not utilizing good AI models in their drive through software, they’re using the cheapest, most bare-minimum models they can possibly get their hands on. But even if they use good models and do solve AI food ordering, even if they do manage to make it as good as a human for the task, it will still not be an appropriate tool for education or tutoring.
deleted by creator
It’s not a fallacious statement. You’re correct that it would still not be an appropriate tool, but that statement doesn’t claim it would be.
Nah, bro. AGI is just around the corner, fr fr. Hear me out, bro, it’s gonna be so lit for everyone! Come on, bro! Fucking utopia!
/s as if I really need it
Even if AGI was “just around the corner”, it’ll be built on the bones of the broken-ass LLM situation we have now. The optimism doesn’t just cover our ability to iterate towards it, it extends to the ability of said AGI’s ability to unlearn bluffing, gaslighting, and just fabricating things. I’m super doubtful about all of it, especially the latter part.
Checkers by me is using it now and its 10x slower and so wrong. I always have to ask for a human to get on the line. My little ice cream cone and mozzarella sticks aren’t worth it any more, so I don’t go.
Altman could be taking billions by offering a CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO and management AI.
It’s a crazy idea, I know. But in the office of office of redundant redundancy redundancy, management tends to be too thick and ineffective and inefficient. If we could just replace those hard to do things with AI, the management team might be free to learn other things and do other things.
I have very limited experience in LARGE corporations. But it seems to me those are all “putting out fires” positions requiring some level of rapport with key individuals and usually privileged knowledge.
Not saying it justifies the exorbitant salaries they get. Just explaining why in a “shareholder profits first” system we’re not seeing AI’s running corporations.
Especially given the results of AI run vending machines / stores.
I’ve often said this, the CEO’s compensation is because he’s to take blame if shit goes sideways and they need the stock price to stop falling. Though in recent times they don’t get fired nearly as easily
And most of the comp tends to be in stock to motivate them to make whatever decisions raise the share price the most, including things that a normal person would find unethical. If you’re paid a flat salary, you don’t really care
We don’t see AI’s taking executive positions because the executives are the ones making the decisions. US executives are inefficient compared to their compensation, for example, in Japan they make far less and yet some of the most successful companies in the world are controlled by Japanese management, but they are the ones who decide their own salaries.
McDonald’s is removing artificial intelligence (AI) powered ordering technology from its drive-through restaurants in the US, after customers shared its comical mishaps online.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c722gne7qngo [2024-06-18]
They shoulda tested it in the corporate offices instead of on the front line. Everyone knows the front line work is way harder and way more stressful than preparing and filing the TPS reports.
I don’t do fast food all that often, but if I’m in the mood for a burger or taco or whatever, I’ll sometimes visit one.
Many in my area are still humans on the other end of the drive-through, but I sometimes get a chatbot.
I haven’t done this, because I don’t want the fallout to hit the underpaid human workers on the other end, but I have a fantasy of ordering 1000 tacos or chicken nuggets or something and then just driving away. Honestly, this is a likely root cause of the “misinterpreted orders” that others have seen: they were behind someone like me who was fed up enough to go through with it.
This isn’t to discount the various other ways LLMs can screw up.
McDonald’s told franchisees it would remove the tech…
I suspect this is also a franchisee option. Even if the brand isn’t forcing it, I think the local stores can implement their own independently. It’d be neat if a brand put no-ai in their franchise agreements. I’d give that brand more attention.
While I agree with the message, the argument is undermined by the fact that it considers a customer service bot to be comparable to the models used by students and tutors. Those people would not find this argument convincing because they know McDonald’s is using shitty models to save costs.
It’s hard enough to get a human to understand your order through those crappy microphones.
Remember when they tried outsourcing that to India?
No, but it doesn’t surprise me.
I also found an article from 2006, but it’s paywalled.
Do you remember why this failed?
The same reason cold calling doesn’t work anymore.
The amount of insurance company calls I get since I have to renew my car insure is absurd. They can go fuck themselves and I will never give them a dime.
“John” with a thick Indian accent on the phone isn’t someone I would trust honestly. It’s not a racism thing, it’s the I don’t want to give any information about myself to someone in another country especially when they specialize in scamming people.
Crappy mics + crappy connections = consumer rejection. Logistical nightmare. Someone reported having their order taken when the restaurant wasn’t open yet.
“Because it’s 2024. 2026 models are way better!”
“What do you mean each order costs $3 in tokens? We pay those employees $6 per hour!”
If only they could cool data centers with coca cola /s
Datacenters is why their coffee is so hot.
…
Actually it is interesting why scalding coffee is better for the fast food business
Slows cooling: High heat buys time for commuters.
Masks bitterness: Extreme heat numbs taste buds temporarily.
Hides cheap beans: Lower-grade coffee tastes better when hot.
Prevents complaints: Customers rarely complain about coffee being too hot.
Reduces returns: Cold coffee gets sent back.
Reduces refills: Customers cannot chug boiling liquids.
That’s what they are using the ice cream machine for.
How? It’s broken.
LOL I know for a fact when the “ice cream machine doesn’t work” it either ran out of ‘milk’… cuz refilling requires pouring a 2 gal bag of sugary milk into the top end the chances of spilling and making a massive mess are pretty high.
Or they didn’t do cleaning cycle and it’s won’t turn on until they do.
Go to Diary Queef if you want ice cream.
Diary Queef doesn’t sell ice cream; it’s a frozen dairy product.
I thought it was neither liquid or solid but gas?
translation: we tried to replace the functions of yet more of our employees and can not yet, effectively, automate more of them out of a job. But we’re working on it.
You mean the thing that misinterpreted orders from a small list of choices would potentially identify and bomb an all girls children’s school if used by the military?
The have solid intel to suggest the girls took the burgers.
Worst part about having a dark sense of humor is thinking up punchlines to jokes that are only funny until you get them.
I don’t believe it was ai’s fault at all. I believe they hit that girls school on purpose to kill the kids of a bunch of their leaders and elites.
That sort of thing is right up Israel’s alley, killing the families of people they don’t like. Our president endorsed the same thing at one point campaigning too.
My friend who works at McDs says people at the drive thru dont believe he’s a human no matter how much he tries to reassure them.
He should embrace it.
“Hello. I’m Jake your burger… assistant. I’m here to take your order… I’m here with you until the end. Let’s do this. Would you like… fries… or a large refreshing soft drink… with your order?”
I mean what can you say that doesn’t risk getting you fired?
I hope it cost them a lot of money to implement and then to remove it. As long as it ate into their profits I don’t care
I’m sure they’re putting all those costs onto the franchisees. McDonalds the corporation won’t feel a thing.
This is why McDoubles are like $3 instead of $1.
McSchadenfreude
Handily demonstrating, again, that frontline customer service is skilled labour.
