My guess is this is a small move in a long term strategy to fully automate their restaurants. Everything needing a human will be re-worked to not need human labor or will be eliminated.
The point isn’t that the tech is good now - it isn’t. Wal-Mart didn’t keep their stocking robots. The AI lawyer got in a tremendous amount of legal trouble. AI journalism has been rolled back after quality issues.
But do you think the technology will stay this bad?
Like, remember what phones were like in 2003? People still had landlines. The closest thing to a smartphone was a Blackberry (which came out in 2002). 3G networks were brand-new (and spotty). None of it was very good, yet they got better and better and now here we are 20 years later where smartphones are an indispensable part of daily life for most people.
What will automation look like in 2043? 2053? That’s within our lifetime. What kind of jobs will today’s kindergartners have available to them when they reach their 20s and 30s?
There is nothing to indicate that automation will always be bad forever. There is money to be saved by cutting out the human element and replacing them with robots. It’s looking more and more reasonable to invest in R&D that eliminates human jobs, in every industry - from Uber and DoorDash drivers to semi drivers to tutors to artists to cashiers. It’s coming, and we have to think about how we’re going to support all the people that won’t have a job anymore.
If people were properly incentived we could easily automate out the fast majority of fast food and retail work. The only reason they haven’t is because minimum wage labor is so ludicrously cheap they don’t need to bother.
The self driving and AI stuff is pretty stupid though.
First this, then refills are no longer free (which is how it works in most of the world already). I imagine automation will also come in there as well.
Margin on drinks is huge as they cost next to nothing.
My guess is this is a small move in a long term strategy to fully automate their restaurants. Everything needing a human will be re-worked to not need human labor or will be eliminated.
I’ve been saying this for years now.
Within 20-30 years, most things as we know it will be automated.
White Castle is buying 100 robots that can flip burgers and man fry stations.
Amazon has shown off a cashierless grocery store.
Wal-Mart is deploying tech to identify when stock on a shelf is low and was looking at robot stockers.
Waymo, Uber, etc. are working good progress on self-driving taxis.
Domino’s has a pizza delivery robot they’re working on.
Amazon is deploying its automatic delivery drones.
Russia is actively using self-driving semi trucks in Siberia, and there are multiple startups working on the problem elsewhere.
Journalists are slowly being replaced by AI.
Both WGA and SAG-AFTRA are striking because of the threat that AI will take their jobs in the near term.
There was that dumb AI lawyer thing a little bit ago.
Blizzard is replacing concept artists with AI image generation.
And so on.
The point isn’t that the tech is good now - it isn’t. Wal-Mart didn’t keep their stocking robots. The AI lawyer got in a tremendous amount of legal trouble. AI journalism has been rolled back after quality issues.
But do you think the technology will stay this bad?
Like, remember what phones were like in 2003? People still had landlines. The closest thing to a smartphone was a Blackberry (which came out in 2002). 3G networks were brand-new (and spotty). None of it was very good, yet they got better and better and now here we are 20 years later where smartphones are an indispensable part of daily life for most people.
What will automation look like in 2043? 2053? That’s within our lifetime. What kind of jobs will today’s kindergartners have available to them when they reach their 20s and 30s?
There is nothing to indicate that automation will always be bad forever. There is money to be saved by cutting out the human element and replacing them with robots. It’s looking more and more reasonable to invest in R&D that eliminates human jobs, in every industry - from Uber and DoorDash drivers to semi drivers to tutors to artists to cashiers. It’s coming, and we have to think about how we’re going to support all the people that won’t have a job anymore.
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If people were properly incentived we could easily automate out the fast majority of fast food and retail work. The only reason they haven’t is because minimum wage labor is so ludicrously cheap they don’t need to bother.
The self driving and AI stuff is pretty stupid though.
First this, then refills are no longer free (which is how it works in most of the world already). I imagine automation will also come in there as well.
Margin on drinks is huge as they cost next to nothing.
Are they going to automate the eating as well?
You my friend just have a crystal ball. ( I do really mean I believe your correct)