Innovations

Bacon ice cream and nugget overload sees misfiring McDonald's AI withdrawn

McDonald's is removing its artificial intelligence (AI) ordering technology from its drive-thru restaurants in the United States after customers shared comical mishaps online. In 2019, it was announced that it was testing a system developed by IBM that processes orders using voice recognition software. However, it wasn't foolproof, leading to viral videos of strange misinterpreted orders ranging from bacon ice cream to hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets.

McDonald's has told franchisees that by the end of July it will remove the technology from more than 100 restaurants where it has been testing it, Restaurant Business reported. McDonald's said: «After careful analysis, McDonald's has decided to end our current global partnership with IBM for AOT (automated order fulfillment) after this year». Still, he said he still believes the technology will be «part of the future of his restaurants». Through the end of the year, we will continue to evaluate long-term, scalable solutions that will help us make informed decisions about the future of voice ordering. The technology has been a source of concern since its inception, though the initial concern was that it could make people's jobs obsolete.

However, it has become apparent that replacing restaurant workers may not be as easy as people first feared and as proponents of the system expected. Cases of AI order execution failure have been documented on the Internet. In one video, which has been viewed more than 30,000 times on TikTok, a young woman grows increasingly annoyed as she tries to convince an artificial intelligence that she wants caramel ice cream, only for it to add some butter to her order. In another video, which has 360,000 views, a person claims her account received nine tea orders because her order was mixed up with another person's order. Two people laugh when hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets are added to their order in a popular video, while the New York Post reports that another person mistakenly had bacon added to their ice cream. The completion of this test does not mean the end of concern about the changes that artificial intelligence will have in the workplace.

IBM announced its readiness to continue cooperation with McDonald's in the future. The statement said the technology is one of the most comprehensive in the industry, fast and accurate in some of the most challenging environments. «We look forward to continuing to work with McDonald's on a number of other projects as McDonald's reevaluates and refines its plans for AOT».

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