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.
McDonald’s told franchisees it would remove the tech from the more than 100 restaurants it has been testing it in by the end of July, as first reported by trade publication Restaurant Business.
Frankly, I doubt the problem was even the software at all; I think it was doomed to failure simply by shitty speakers and microphones.
But a human would have realized bacon on ice cream or thousands of chicken nuggets needed “Are you sure you meant what I think I just heard?” as a response rather than “Excellent order! Pull up to the next window!”