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Posted on 08/30/2025 7:27:59 AM PDT by xxqqzz
Taco Bell is rethinking its use of artificial intelligence (AI) to power drive-through restaurants in the US after comical videos of the tech making mistakes were viewed millions of times.
In one clip, a customer seemingly crashed the system by ordering 18,000 water cups, while in another a person got increasingly angry as the AI repeatedly asked him to add more drinks to his order.
Since 2023, the fast-food chain has introduced the technology at over 500 locations in the US, with the aim of reducing mistakes and speeding up orders.
But the AI seems to have served up the complete opposite.
Taco Bell's Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dane Mathews told The Wall Street Journal that deploying the voice AI has had its challenges.
"Sometimes it lets me down, but sometimes it really surprises me," he said.
He said the firm was "learning a lot" - but he would now think carefully about where to use AI going forwards, including not using it at drive-throughs.
In particular, Mr Matthews said, there are times when humans are better placed to take orders, especially when the restaurants get busy.
"We'll help coach teams on when to use voice AI and when it's better to monitor or step in," he said.
The issues have been building online as disgruntled customers take to social media to complain about the service - with many pointing out glitches and issues.
One clip on Instagram, which has been viewed over 21.5 million times, shows a man ordering "a large Mountain Dew" and the AI voice continually replying "and what will you drink with that?".
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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We’re now seeing what could possibly go wrong!
Didn’t test it first ? LOL
As I understand it, AI is generally 87% accurate......that number is low if you ask me.
I can only imagine the censoring the IT department has to do for the customer service reviews of the transcripts of the transactions. The profanity must be off the charts.
Fake news. Did Taco Bell actually serve 18,000 waters? No they did not.
A human mishears “18,000” and it’s a laugh, a machine mishears “18,000” and it’s top story, breaking news for the fake news media.
This is why, the few times I go to fast food, I always go inside, even though it is much slower. At least when there is a kiosk instead of a person, like at Taco Bell and McDonalds, I don’t have to worry about poor voice technology.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has not worked out smoothly for Taco Bell’s drive-thru ordering system. The company is currently re-evaluating its use of voice AI after experiencing customer complaints about glitches, mistakes, and prank orders that have gone viral online.
Customer frustration: Numerous online complaints and viral videos show customers struggling to place orders correctly with the voice AI. A common issue is the bot repeating prompts even after the customer has answered.
Inaccurate orders: The system has been prone to errors, which customers and employees find frustrating. Prank orders for absurd quantities of items, such as 18,000 cups of water, have also been reported, potentially disrupting operations.
Operational issues: Taco Bell’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer has conceded that a human team member might be better in some situations, particularly when drive-thru lines become long and complex.
The company is now reconsidering when and how to use the AI, training human staff to monitor the system and intervene when necessary.
Despite the recent issues, Taco Bell and its parent company, Yum! Brands, are not abandoning AI. Instead, they are refining their approach.
The company plans to train staff on when to monitor the AI closely or take over entirely, using the technology as a supplement rather than a complete replacement for human employees. Taco Bell notes that its system has successfully processed millions of drive-thru orders, suggesting the problems are not universal.
Yum! Brands is expanding its use of AI beyond voice ordering. In partnership with Nvidia, it is developing AI tools for internal operations, such as an “AI restaurant coach” to advise managers on efficiency, labor, and inventory.
Other use cases: The company continues to invest in AI for other purposes, including marketing, supply chain management, and its mobile app.
“”We’re now seeing what could possibly go wrong!””
I’m a skeptic and believe this example is just the tip of the iceberg. It will create a catastrophe and the inability to recover from it-for the country or some individual or individuals...
AI drive-through assistants will likely improve to where they’re reliable enough, but this idea of “general AI” that will be all-knowing and can be counted on to answer any question is a pipe-dream. Beyond a certain level of complexity, it becomes impossible to audit it and know how it is reaching its conclusions. And the more we depend upon it, the more our ability to do our own thinking atrophies, which just makes us more dependent upon the AI “black box” and less capable of critically evaluating its performance. That creates a downward spiral that leads to a point where all important decisions are made by the fallible and unaccountable AI, while humans sit in the corner drooling on themselves and accepting whatever nonsense the AI spits out.
The simplest COBOL system had programmers smart enough to put reasonable bounds on user entry (dates must not be Roman era, withdrawal amount must be > 0 and so forth)
What’s happening here is “ooo look it’s AI” is being used as if it meant “don’t bother with any software development standards like testing, it’s magic” which is itself a euphemism for “we can replace our expensive developers with $6/hr offshore”
This is the tech industry since 1999. Some bright guy creates a new thing … cloud, Agile, genAI, etc. It has a good foundation, a purpose and potential. The corrupt tech and consulting barons who sit underneath the globalist royalty (WEF etc … check their lists of “fellows”) pervert it into their ruinous agenda for replacement and societal destruction.
AI is not intelligence. It basically takes known information and averages it out to try to guess what might be the answer.
It’s just another treason not to go there…
That’s roughly the percentage of men who successfully made it across the beach on D-day. 87% isn’t good!
Garbage in, fast food out....
I see what you did there! lol!
Soon to be seen at a Cracker Barrel near you.
It brings to mind a scene from I, Robot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOKEIE2puso
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