It crashed the system, and that is only one of many issues they are having
Comment on Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 waters
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 14 hours ago
Why would this cause them to rethink anything?
If someone trolls an order of thousands of something, a worker isn't going to just make that thing. I get that retail workers are treated like shit and are paid shit so have zero shits to give, but if someone rolls up to the drive through window asking for their thousands of waters or whatever, the people working there are gonna escalate it to a manager or just tell the guy to go pound sand.
Anybody today can go to any drivethrough and ask for whatever and then simply drive away. I'm certain it happens from time to time, even from legitimate orders when someone discovers they leave their wallet at home. If it was a great problem though these businesses simply wouldn't order drive through service, or would require payment before cooking anything.
Jiggle_Physics@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Because it costed them money, lol. The suits upstairs gave a quote in the article talking about how they will withdraw AI from all 500 locations they were implemented, and it also talks about how McDonalds did the exact same little dance over a year ago.
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 14 hours ago
The mcdonalds thing was because the model they implemented was misinterpreting people and incorrectly placing orders. Yeah, obviously the thing wasn't working right so they pulled that. Sounds just like early personal assistants on phones and other devices, hell my wife still struggles with those. They clearly needed more time developing and testing it with a diverse range of customers from all over. I don't know if they trained it using recordings from real drive throughs from all over, but they should have.
The 18000 water example probably didn't cost anyone anything. Regardless of if it was intentional or not, it wouldn't have been fulfilled as part of an order. They mention it "crashing the system" - whatever that means in this context is impossible to know. Did it take down all of taco bell? Did it cause the LLM to stop responding on JUST this one site? All of them? Did it eventually time out and start working right? it's impossible to know because the details just aren't there and we have no insight as to the system architecture. I always assume there is a method to rely on traditional ordering where a person listening in while the chatbot talks to the person can take over and fix the problem. It's not like there aren't drive through workers still there.
_stranger_@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
A drive through menu shouldn’t have crippling security vulnerabilities that are trivial to reproduce just be speaking to it.
McDonald’s thing was because “AI” is a scam.
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 9 hours ago
Totally agree. Without details we don't have any idea what actually went wrong.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Even if it’s only a receipt for 18,000 waters or it fills up a screen it costs them time and resources.
Every single AI halucinates, always has and always will. It’s useless for this.
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 14 hours ago
Really the only cost here is the impact to consumer attitudes towards taco bell and AI because the video and news of this is circulating. One error is whatever, but public perception doesn't typically involve much critical thinking.
People are still irrationally terrified of all manner of technology even though science backs it up, like vaccines.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
What do you mean science backs it up? Science is finding massive social problems with technology all the time. Social media and its negative impacts on mental health (especially for teen and preteen girls), for example. Microplastics everywhere, for another. Climate change anyone?
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Unlike vaccines, AI has no use case and is always a net negative.
IzzyScissor@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Unless the drinks are made automatically by a machine - I know McDonalds had those at least 10 years ago, so it would make sense that at least one Taco Bell has it. The customer could have gotten through the ‘payment’ of $0.00, and the employees might not have a quick way of cancelling an order that ‘was paid for’ and currently being made, but the article doesn’t go into detail.
Eh_I@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Just shut up and start pouring, we got this. 😂
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Anybody today can go to any drivethrough and ask for whatever and then simply drive away.
Most drive thrus take payment before processing the order
theblackpaul@lemmings.world 9 hours ago
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.
flubba86@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
No. This makes no sense. Are you seriously saying if you saw an order for 18,000 waters pop up on your monitor you’d just say “that’s fine” then spend the next three days straight filling cups?
If I were the manager of the store, I’d hope my employees would have the bare minimum critical thinking skill to ask someone first.
At the store I worked in, everyone would be given at least 12 hours notice of a catering order. We’d have everything prepped ready to go, and expect the order when it arrives. If one popped up without notice it’s definitely a bug, and we’re definitely not making it.
aeiou_ckr@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
This is thinking of the order from a managers view and not a worker that generally is paid/treated like shit. Middle managers at fast food places are on the same level as lawyers and tow truck drivers.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
It’s not a practical order to fill, logistically. You won’t have 18k cups, just for starters.
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 9 hours ago
I worked at a pizza place with a drive through. We sold many items that were non-pizza like wings, subs, salads, burgers, desserts and side items like fries, mozz, etc. My girlfriend's family owned the place, so I was familiar with more than just grunt work and had some inside insight into the business numbers that normal workers do not get.
We would never have fulfilled an 18,000 water cup request.
If someone came by with a catering sized order in the drive through, we would have had them park somewhere and told them a relative estimate of how long it would be. Sure, maybe someone would have started on a couple of things, but we wouldn't be able to fulfill such large orders in the time it took between placing an order and the window. There's only so many workers.
There was obviously plenty of food waste, but that's baked into the cost of the items.
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Food waste is a large greenhouse gas producer. The costs that impact the business P&L might be baked into item cost but the environmental cost is being externalized and everyone pays.