The Devil's Advocate
Call me Dad
I never once said we shouldn’t do anything. I just explained why businesses are rushing to not pay that. It’s a drastic change when compared to its entire history. I never said it wasn’t needed either.
McDonalds testing out voice ordering system to replace cashiers
- Thread starter goatmane
- Start date
avon barksdale
i want my corners
They did the carwash like this too
I only order thru the app anyway and just pick up
I don't see how this is any different unless robots are actually putting burgers together
I don't see how this is any different unless robots are actually putting burgers together
And still can't get a milkshake. 
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McDonald’s will stop testing AI to take drive-thru orders, for now
Would you like seventeen packets of ketchup with that?
www.theverge.com
McDonald’s will stop testing AI to take drive-thru orders, for now
The company is looking for other partners for AI chatbot-based ordering.
By Wes Davis, a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.Jun 16, 2024, 5:22 PM EDT
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25493869/2153924477.jpg "An exterior view of a McDonald’s fast food restaurant...")
A McDonald’s in Pittsburgh. Photo: Paul Weaver / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
If your local McDonald’s has been getting your order confidently wrong with an AI chatbot at the drive-thru, I have good news for you: The company is ending the program for now. The company told franchisees that it’s winding down an AI drive-thru ordering partnership with IBM “no later than July 26th, 2024,” according to trade publication Restaurant Business.
The company will reportedly remove the tech from the over 100 restaurants it’s been testing the system in after partnering with IBM in 2021. It’s not clear why the company is ending the IBM deal, though. It told Restaurant Business it was testing whether the voice ordering chatbot could speed up service and that the test left it confident “that a voice-ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.”
A potential option could involve the company’s vague announcement of a Google deal in December. Bloomberg reported that the deal was partly for a chatbot named “Ask Pickles” that employees could use for guidance on things like cleaning ice cream machines. Even so, Google partnered with Wendy’s, which started testing drive-thru AI based on its tech last year and has since expanded that trial.
Fast food companies in general are hungry for AI. White Castle has been testing AI provided by speech recognition company SoundHound. And Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, and others use an AI drive-through chatbot that an SEC filing revealed was underpinned by remote human workers in the Philippines most of the time.
Whatever McDonald’s does with drive-thru AI, that’s only part of the story when it comes to its efforts to automate previously human-performed tasks. The company also offers things like mobile ordering and in-store kiosks and has tested drone deliveries, kitchen robots, and weird AI hiring tools.
Elim Garak
Veteran
Coli elitist fearmongering takes another loss lol.McDonald’s will stop testing AI to take drive-thru orders, for now
Would you like seventeen packets of ketchup with that?
McDonald’s will stop testing AI to take drive-thru orders, for now
The company is looking for other partners for AI chatbot-based ordering.
By Wes Davis, a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.
Jun 16, 2024, 5:22 PM EDT
A McDonald’s in Pittsburgh. Photo: Paul Weaver / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
If your local McDonald’s has been getting your order confidently wrong with an AI chatbot at the drive-thru, I have good news for you: The company is ending the program for now. The company told franchisees that it’s winding down an AI drive-thru ordering partnership with IBM “no later than July 26th, 2024,” according to trade publication Restaurant Business.
The company will reportedly remove the tech from the over 100 restaurants it’s been testing the system in after partnering with IBM in 2021. It’s not clear why the company is ending the IBM deal, though. It told Restaurant Business it was testing whether the voice ordering chatbot could speed up service and that the test left it confident “that a voice-ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.”
A potential option could involve the company’s vague announcement of a Google deal in December. Bloomberg reported that the deal was partly for a chatbot named “Ask Pickles” that employees could use for guidance on things like cleaning ice cream machines. Even so, Google partnered with Wendy’s, which started testing drive-thru AI based on its tech last year and has since expanded that trial.
Fast food companies in general are hungry for AI. White Castle has been testing AI provided by speech recognition company SoundHound. And Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, and others use an AI drive-through chatbot that an SEC filing revealed was underpinned by remote human workers in the Philippines most of the time.
Whatever McDonald’s does with drive-thru AI, that’s only part of the story when it comes to its efforts to automate previously human-performed tasks. The company also offers things like mobile ordering and in-store kiosks and has tested drone deliveries, kitchen robots, and weird AI hiring tools.
Richard Glidewell
Superstar
I would order 500 nuggets and 500 hundred chips and drive off........skrrrrrrt
Late stage capitalism.
Side note, do you guys across the pond ever call fries "fries"? "Fish and chips" has a nice ring to it, but "burgers and chips" or "chips and ketchup" doesn't hit the same.
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Richard Glidewell
Superstar
Lmao......I'm just a world traveling Houstonian breh. I have heard it used in weird combinations, but I took that line from a song. The thing that fukks with me and makes me instantly ag is when them fukkers say dairy milk........Side note, do you guys across the pond ever call fries "fries"? "Fish and chips" has a nice ring to it, but "burgers and chips" or "chips and ketchup" doesn't hit the same.
Nick Street
Pro
McDonalds is woat.
McDonald’s scraps AI pilot after order mix-ups go viral
Fast food giant pulls plug on AI-powered voice-ordering at about 100 outlets after viral videos of order mishaps.
McDonald’s scraps AI pilot after order mix-ups go viral
Fast food giant pulls plug on AI-powered voice-ordering at about 100 outlets after viral videos of order mishaps.
McDonald’s has pulled the plug on its AI partnership with IBM [Rogelio V Solis/AP Photo]
Published On 19 Jun 202419 Jun 2024
McDonald’s is scrapping a trial of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted ordering at select drive-through restaurants after videos of order mix-ups went viral online.
The fast food giant said it had decided to retire the AI-powered voice-ordering system, launched in partnership with IBM in 2021, after a “thoughtful review”.
“IBM remains a trusted partner and we will still utilise many of their products across our global system,” McDonald’s said in a statement on Tuesday.
Trade publication Restaurant Business first reported the news on Friday.
While McDonald’s did not give a reason for ending the partnership, the move comes after TikTok users shared videos showing the system picking up orders from the wrong cars, multiplying orders and producing bizarre combinations of food such as ice cream with ketchup and butter.
Still, McDonald’s signalled that the aborted trial would not be the end of its experiments with AI, saying that “our work with IBM has given us the confidence that a voice ordering solution for [drive-through] will be part of our restaurants’ future”.
“We see tremendous opportunity in advancing our restaurant technology and will continue to evaluate long-term, scalable solutions that will help us make an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year,” the Chicago-based company said.
McDonald’s decision to end the pilot comes as restaurant chains have been rushing to embrace AI amid the promise of faster workflows and lower labour costs.
Major US fast food giants including Chipotle, Wendy’s, Carl’s Jr, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut have rolled out AI-assisted systems in recent years.
In April, Joe Park, the technology chief at Yum Brands, the owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, told the Wall Street Journal that the group believes an “AI-first mentality works every step of the way”.
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