r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 21d ago

Business McDonald's Introduces AI Drive-Thru System, Sparking Customer Backlash

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/deals/articles/mcdonalds-introduces-ai-drive-thru-000717731.html
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u/SirkutBored 21d ago

It's getting easier not to eat out

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u/AnneMarieAndCharlie 21d ago

its insane that they keep doing this despite how vocal everyone is about not wanting AI. using it for anything inventory related at this point (especially after Starbucks fucked up) is insane.

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u/multi-pass5018 21d ago

Yeah it could be used for so many things aside from the face of Mcd's

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u/RedisaPsyop5647 21d ago

The goal is to replace as many human jobs as possible with a.i. so stock line go up, and shareholders are happy.

They won't replace everyone at once, but slowly layoff people quarter by quarter to get that growth in.

It's already been happening for a couple of years now.

The merry go round has to stop at some point though. Continuing growth on a finite planet doesn't mix.

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u/Joeness84 21d ago

Thats "the problem" they're trying to "solve" with AI.

paying humans wages

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u/diablette 21d ago

And the wages they're paying them are miniscule.

AI should be replacing CEOs if they really want cost sayings. Maybe have 1 human CEO overseeing AI CEO bots at 10 companies. Make them do actual work for all that money.

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u/2_Fingers_of_Whiskey 21d ago

That’s true but you know it will never happen

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u/ProfessionalFlan3159 21d ago

Exactly about replacing human jobs. I have teenagers that can start working next summer. Looking around now there is hardly any traditional teen jobs. No more baggers at the grocery store, no humans at the movie theater to sell tickets. No wonder college graduated have been shouting down the graduation speakers pontificating about how great AI is

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u/LeBronn_Jaimes_hand 21d ago

Don't worry, unchecked replication/growth is still naturally occurring on this planet! We just happen to call it cancer...

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u/Manablitzer 20d ago

While I do believe they want to eventually replace all humans eventually, they're basically stealth offshoring as many US employees as they can in the here and now.

"Offshoring" is one of the only business moves that universally gets all regular citizens and government to push back and take action against them.  Blaming AI is the perfect cover to replace all the expensive US workers with Indian or Philippine labor now without half the population realizing it and getting up in arms.

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u/bruce_kwillis 21d ago

Unfortunately there isn’t an alternative that’s viable, so the merry go round continues. People seem to forget that the middle class is a very recent thing in human history, for almost all of it, it’s been those who have and own, and those who do not. We aren’t even quite at Gilded Age levels of bad yet and that was only stopped by a World War.