575
McDonald's Introduces AI Drive-Thru System, Sparking Customer Backlash (tech.yahoo.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
221 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 5 months ago (7 children)

What part of an order-taking system would even use AI? You punch in what you want and pay. Where does AI enter the picture?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    This is for the drive-thru, so you aren't punching in what you want. You are looking out of your car window and saying what you want into a microphone for someone to jot down. This is trying to replace the employee taking the order.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Lmfao voice recognition can't even handle accents i'd love to see it translate "double flurry mcyumbo"

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (1 child)

    So...voice recognition, which has been around for decades? They're calling that "AI" now? Yes I realize that newer implementations are more advanced. But it's still a voice recognition system.

    They could have literally just titled the article "McDonald's introduces voice-recognition drive-thru system, sparking customer backlash." But that wouldn't make for an attention-grabbing headline if they didn't shoe-horn "AI" in there.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago*

    Speech to Text -> NLU -> Ordered summarized -> human for review (we hope?) -> order placed. They are using these to reduce the labor demand on the human portion, and I presume at some point the "to human for review" will just go away, if they get the accuracy dialed in.

    The shitty part is, it's not like they are saving much money, since those jobs pay shit anyways. I have to wonder what the ROI is on replacing the electronics and hooking all that up, plus the R&D that went into the system itself, is.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent