McDonald’s is removing artificial intelligence (AI) powered ordering technology from its drive-through restaurants in the US, after customers shared its comical mishaps online.
A trial of the system, which was developed by IBM and uses voice recognition software to process orders, was announced in 2019.
It has not proved entirely reliable, however, resulting in viral videos of bizarre misinterpreted orders ranging from bacon-topped ice cream to hundreds of dollars’ worth of chicken nuggets.
To answer 1, remember IBM did Watson (the Jeopardy-playing AI that went on to be used in business intelligence software). They were ahead of the curve on certain kinds of AI.
But yeah I agree, this was a total pipe dream.