Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 waters
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One clip on Instagram, which has been viewed over 21.5 million times, shows a man ordering "a large Mountain Dew" and the AI voice continually replying "and what will you drink with that?".
"Dude, Where's my car" turning into prophecy wasn't in my bingo card:
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They could hire a person to take orders. Companies just want to use AI. Even AI has issues. Big companies can afford people.
But are the AI issues cheaper than the corporate infrastructure around hiring and paying employees and losing the occasional customer? If AI is more profitable, they don’t care. The only thing that’s mattered for decades now is what the bottom line says, no matter the cost.
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Visions of ICE running in to take the machines away.
ICE vs. Clanckers, now that's a match I wasn't expecting
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Yea, I'm not talking to a fucking robot. Just give me a screen to type it in myself at that point if you're not going to hire someone (I'll still probably not use it unless I'm desperate but it's better than talking to a machine).
I love almost any place where the ordering process is DIY.
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That's not true. It's developers incapable of using AI responsibly. If my manager told me to use AI, I would be sure to inform them of the limitations professionally.
Both are true.
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Both are true.
Sure I'll agree it's both.
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It's not software developers, it's their managers and executives telling them to use AI
Nobody is developing current LLMs. They're just feeding it garbage from previous versions.
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Are you rhyming on purpose? Let me just edit that last line a bit to make it work even better:
They have the best lettuce and cheese,
and their breakfast beats McD’s.
The Hash browns are actually hash browns
instead of the thin $2.50 ones sold at the clown's.
I was not, and yours is excellent
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It sounds actually very funny to try and break it
I tried that with an LLM and it told me I was clever and smart.
there's that regurgitation and feedback loop. -
Or, and hear me out: I can drive off, flip them the bird, and go down to one of the other 15 fast food places within a 5 minute drive, that doesn't use a speech recognition AI to take my order.
I guess if that makes you happy. Seems like wasted time as opposed to just having the worker take it over and do the order, at which point speech recongition software isn't being used.
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Eat their refried beans once and that is all you need, ever. Then the whole AI thing is moot. - just my gut feeling
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Is it safe to assume the people that made this AI thing for TB got fired and hence AI kind of did make somebody lose their job?
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“Sometimes it lets me down, but sometimes it really surprises me," he said.
That’s what I want from a drive through. To be surprised or let down.
A positive surprise is good though
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I guess if that makes you happy. Seems like wasted time as opposed to just having the worker take it over and do the order, at which point speech recongition software isn't being used.
I've tried this repeatedly. I've answered "No" to their upsale. I've sat there in silence, waiting for it to time out. I've asked for a human. Every time the AI takes my order, it adds nacho fries that I didn't order and specifically rejected.
The problem isn't that I need a human to fix it. The problem is that the AI is specifically programmed to ignore a rejected upsale. Their AI is smart enough to recognize the rest of my complicated order, but it can't understand "No"? Horseshit. They are using this fraudulent programming to increase their upsale metrics, expecting us to docilely accept the sale rather than raise a fuss.
Drive-offs are another of the metrics they look at. Since I've communicated with nobody but the AI, they have nobody but the AI to blame for the drive-off. They don't get to blame a human for failing to remediate the problem.
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I actively avoid the places that use this. It’s a horrible experience I can choose not to take part in.
I would just be happy I can order in my native tongue. That could be neat.
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Yea, I'm not talking to a fucking robot. Just give me a screen to type it in myself at that point if you're not going to hire someone (I'll still probably not use it unless I'm desperate but it's better than talking to a machine).
Drive through might be a bit more difficult for touch screens. It'd be like trying to reach your parking ticket but for how many clicks it takes to make the order.
Phone app might be easier but not sure it really replaces what drive throughs are for.
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This is an American company, their customers would probably react poorly to hearing a foreign accent come through the speakers
Everyone has already been conditioned to be okay with "John" from Hyderabad speaking to you in incomprehensible accent on every customer service line. So this wouldn't be any different.
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I'm gonna guess you have never worked in fast food.
Window times are the metric they die by. Generally speaking, they start making your order the SECOND you order it, before you ever leave the ordering screen. Yes, even if the order changes mid order. Yes, they make, and throw away lots of food that is not paid for, forgotten, etc ... TONS of food (literally) is thrown away daily.
As for the water order? I would 1000% start making that order. If the higher ups think the AI is working correct, well then who am I to question it? Nobody who works fast food is paid enough to give a shit.
As for the water order? I would 1000% start making that order.
What a self-own
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can't believe they saw how shitty mcdonalds became with all their kiosks and automation and thought yeah i want that for me
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can't believe they saw how shitty mcdonalds became with all their kiosks and automation and thought yeah i want that for me
I mean there's no point to it, it doesn't speed anything up.
For example this morning I had a client meeting (saturdays, ugh) so I went to the train station cause it has a mcdonalds and it opens at 630am. They have 5 kiosks there and one person manning the til. People who were ordering from the til were getting their orders faster than people who used the kiosks. I had to wait 10 minutes just to get a coffee and muffin simply because I used the kiosk.
And it doesn't even make sense. I would have assumed all the orders go through the same system regardless of where it was placed but apparently not. apparently people who don't use the kiosk get priority?