Artificial Intelligence & Wendy’s
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Sir, this is a Wendy’s…
For just under two years, I’ve been neck deep studying AI, AGI, etc., for work. All I’ve got to say is hold onto your butts. It’s absolutely amazing (the ability to analyze blood work to precisely identify diseases) and absolutely terrifying (absolutely no need for human interaction when you can have a relationship with your phone).
For just under two years, I’ve been neck deep studying AI, AGI, etc., for work. All I’ve got to say is hold onto your butts. It’s absolutely amazing (the ability to analyze blood work to precisely identify diseases) and absolutely terrifying (absolutely no need for human interaction when you can have a relationship with your phone).
Can AI make the milkshake machine at McDonald’s work? And stay working?
That's what happens when your lazy azz starts demanding "a living wage" for simply putting a squirt of ketchup on a bun and repeatedly putting mustard instead because you're more interested in TikToc than your job
That's at least another 100-300 years out.
It was probably going to happen whether they asked for a living wage or not.
That definitely accelerated the process though. There will be customer pushback when AI fails to live up to its hype (yet again). But with labor cost in CA so high, the fast food restaurants won’t care.
We’ll have to make up for the lost jobs by increasing the minimum wage.
On my occasional excursions into X land there is inevitably a long thread about some outrageous price somebody just paid for a fast food meal in the Western US.
Capitalism will do what it does when prices are artificially high
Capitalism will do what it does when prices are artificially high
I would not want to be a graphic designer or animator right now starting a career. The AI technology in that space is accelerating at a rate so incredibly fast. For animations, I expect that someone would be able to come up with a story line and prompts for a new episode of the Simpsons (for example) and tell AI to make it. Photoshop AI capabilities are already getting very good. Any basic photoshop task will be automated soon.
Exactly. Minimum wage, by definition, means you are being forced to pay above market value for the lowest skilled labor, which accelerates the incentive to replace the workers with technology.
But beyond that, the minimum wage philosophy has trapped a large group of people in a lifestyle of low-skill jobs. Instead of facing the reality that low-skill jobs pay low-skill wages, the philosophy has communicated that rather than leveling up their skills, minimum-wage workers should just demand that politicians raise the wage for low-skill labor by fiat.
The lowest-skilled jobs cannot support a family over the long term. These types of jobs are good for:
- Supplemental household income (not the primary breadwinner)
- First jobs for young people to learn basic employment skills on their way to higher-paying jobs
- Transitory jobs in between more permanent jobs
This.
Because people in general are a pain, and employees are becoming the irredeemable festering thorn in the azz of employers
Plus, there’s like 200 years of American labor disputes. It’s not like that a discussion that started with Chat GPT.
It’s an advance in technology. I don’t have 30 employees pulling teams of mules plowing and planting. Everything is eventually replaceable.
It’s going to be insane. We could see more software being written in a day than we currently write in a year (or decade). We could have a world where no medicines have side effects because every drug is specifically designed for your genetic sequence.
And we in no way have the social or political systems in place for that world. Pretty terrifying.
It's certainly going to cut into jobs, but it will not eliminate all jobs. A typical fast food place probably has a shift of 4-5 folks. Even with automation/AI you're still going to need at least 2 folks on duty to load raw foods into machines, clear jams, talk to really hard to understand customers, etc.
Current employees dont,, and in certain instances, they may be the cause of it being down.
Interior design too. Pretty sure you can upload a picture of your wall color to ChatGPT and have it recommend specific accent colors and design concepts. Linked with specific SKU numbers from Sherman Williams and everything.
Hopefully AI shifts jobs around more than replacing them -- at least in the next 20-30 years. But yeah, I don't know what we do if the labor force is more or less is replaced by intelligent tech. Capitalism and our monetary systems couldn't function. We rely on capital owners and laborers. If there are no laborers, how do they earn a wage to buy products produced by the capital owners? Going to be a giant cluster 17. Likely very bloody as well unless the asset owners come up with a way to keep the former laborers fed, housed, fat, and entertained/distracted.
You've obviously never had a McRib...
May not be a problem, we are losing a lot of population over the next 10-15 years.
That loss is what will eventually stabilize the housing market.
Hopefully they can come up with an AI robot that doesn’t leave the fries out of my bag. If it’s not the fries, it’s the catchup or the straw or the wrong sandwich or something so often that’s it’s shocking if my order is actually complete. This applies to most fast food places and not just Wendy’s. I don’t eat fast food very often but when I do it is usually a frustrating experience. Don’t get me started on trying to understand anything the order taker says over the speaker. It can’t be English so I guess it’s Klingon or something.
Your taxes will just go up to pay for the person who lost their job to AI to be able to buy the newest iPhone. And then that person will have as many babies as possible to try to get a bigger cut of your taxes and get the next newest iPhone after that.
Life pro tip: download the app and order using it, then just drive thru or go inside & pick it up. I started doing this couple years ago. The order accuracy improves tremendously.
My kids are so picky - youngest wants burgers with just ketchup. Trust me, it’s impossible to get a plain burger without cheese. My orders would be wrong almost every time. But using the app, they get it right 9 times out of 10. Plus they offer rewards and specials on the app you won’t get otherwise.
No need for a human or AI order taker.
This is small-time AI compared to what is being discussed in this thread, but here is my experience at a Wendy's earlier this week.
I rarely eat fast food, but I wound up at a newly renovated Wendy's. I ordered at the kiosk, and expected to type in my name or something, but such a screen never popped up. I paid with my debit card, and expected a receipt to have a number on it or something, but the kiosk told me I would get my receipt with my order.
So I looked at the order board, and there was my first name on the "Now Preparing List". How did their system get my name? I guess Google just recognized my card or something. I asked some of the workers, but they didn't really even know how the kiosk worked.
Small deal, but it creeped me out. I know my name is connected to my card, but I don't recall telling anyone they could share that info.
I hope I didn't agree to be a human centipede.
I rarely eat fast food, but I wound up at a newly renovated Wendy's. I ordered at the kiosk, and expected to type in my name or something, but such a screen never popped up. I paid with my debit card, and expected a receipt to have a number on it or something, but the kiosk told me I would get my receipt with my order.
So I looked at the order board, and there was my first name on the "Now Preparing List". How did their system get my name? I guess Google just recognized my card or something. I asked some of the workers, but they didn't really even know how the kiosk worked.
Small deal, but it creeped me out. I know my name is connected to my card, but I don't recall telling anyone they could share that info.
I hope I didn't agree to be a human centipede.
I use the app for every fast food place. Most of the time you can get some things a little cheaper on there like at Sonic drinks are half price all day on the app.
And they do almost every time get your order like you want it….except for when I went to Wendy’s about a month ago. I went inside to pick it up and it wasn’t quite ready yet so I sat down. I heard the manager training a new employee and he was talking about mobile orders and that it was really important for them to get them right because everything is laid out for them already. They then proceeded to completely mess up my order.
It’s actually using facial recognition software and a camera in the screen. It’s linked with a system created by the insurance industry to track your fast food intake and adjust your health and life insurance rates in real time. Make sure to finish the food before leaving the store or your auto insurance rates will be adjusted due to distracted driving (eating while driving and greasy fingers on the wheel). My favorite benefit is this system can also be linked with your tailor. Pants sizes can actually be adjusted based upon order history. No need to be remeasured, unless you enjoy that part of the process.
It also tracks if you need to buy the extended warranty on your car and sets up phone calls to remind you.
I don't care how big my pants are, just as long as they're not constricting the boys and the little tag says they are a 34 waist!
The newer worry seems to be depopulation. Population has peaked in nearly all developed nations.
But short term, you’re right. Before Covid and wokeness captured everyone’s attention, there were some interesting discussions about a universal basic income. Everyone from Yang to Ben Sasse acknowledged that we needed to set some policies to get out ahead of what seems to be coming. But that would require a level of functioning our government is not currently capable of.
The technology is impressive but it’s overstated in what it can do so far, especially in software development. It’s a great helper especially for technology that you aren’t as familiar. It boosts productivity for sure but in no way is it ready to replace a real developer yet. I’ve used a few products to supplement my work and it’s good but not close to doing it by itself.
The crux of the technology is it needs to base its decisions on past human creativity and problem solving skills. What happens when you totally remove that from the equation and solely rely on AI.
OpenAI is also about to get its pants sued off by every creative entity in the world. They just took whatever they wanted and added it to their knowledge base without compensation or reference. ChatGPT was a massive step forward but we’ll see how quickly we progress with it over the next few years.
Nobody is losing their job at the fast food joints or other restaurants because of AI. They are all so understaffed, it will not move the needle at most places. If you do happen to lose your job to an AI drive through "worker", it's because you're chronically late, absent, or a downright PITA to work with... Nobody with a pulse walked in the door to take your job, so it took AI to finally get rid of your lazy áss.
We need AI for these jobs. Restaurants used to be filled with high school kids and early 20 somethings figuring out what the hell they are going to do with their life... This cohort doesn't work anymore. Parents over schedule the kids and don't make them work in highschool like they might have 25+ years ago. With so many more going to college, or taking parent funded gap years, it leaves out a massive workforce that will likely never come back.
There are also a few people blaming people asking for raises as the problem. Nothing wrong with that... That's capitalism. If you don't try to make the most money you can at your job, you're losing at the capitalism game. If you are talking about raising minimum wages in certain states, that's no different than unions getting the average factory worker to make $120k at the GM plant in Michigan. You the employee (even as a union or voting block) fight for more money, I the business owner figure out how to replace you with technology.... Been done for centuries in ag, manufacturing, mining, and pretty much every industry other than government... We keep paying bureaucrats more and hiring more for some reason.
We need AI for these jobs. Restaurants used to be filled with high school kids and early 20 somethings figuring out what the hell they are going to do with their life... This cohort doesn't work anymore. Parents over schedule the kids and don't make them work in highschool like they might have 25+ years ago. With so many more going to college, or taking parent funded gap years, it leaves out a massive workforce that will likely never come back.
There are also a few people blaming people asking for raises as the problem. Nothing wrong with that... That's capitalism. If you don't try to make the most money you can at your job, you're losing at the capitalism game. If you are talking about raising minimum wages in certain states, that's no different than unions getting the average factory worker to make $120k at the GM plant in Michigan. You the employee (even as a union or voting block) fight for more money, I the business owner figure out how to replace you with technology.... Been done for centuries in ag, manufacturing, mining, and pretty much every industry other than government... We keep paying bureaucrats more and hiring more for some reason.
