Our fast-food location has introduced artificial intelligence drive-thru checkout assistants. Basically, the customer talks to an AI that is programmed to take their order, answer questions, and upsell where it can. It’s truly terrible, but that’s not the point of this particular story.
Another thing to note is that we close at midnight and open up again at 6 AM for breakfast.
I’m setting things up for breakfast one morning, and the opening manager walks over to me, looking confused.
Manager: “Can you check the CCTV from last night?”
Me: “I can. Why? What happened?”
Manager: “Just pull up the CCTV for the drive-thru, from about 12:30 AM onward.”
I do so and see a young guy pull up to the drive-thru. Even though we’re closed, the AI screen is still active. It automatically informs the customer that we’re closed but is happy to answer any follow-up questions. I turn up the volume and listen:
AI: “Hi there! Sorry, but we’re closed until 6 AM for breakfast. Would you like the address of the nearest 24-hour [Chain Restaurant]?”
Customer: “Sure, I’d like that, but first I was wondering: the equation 24×2+25x−47ax−2=−8x−3−53ax−2 is true for all values of x≠2a, where a is a constant. What is the value of a?”
AI: “Oh, good question! The value of a is -3. Let me tell you how I solved it…”
Because the AI shows what it’s saying as text on a screen, the driver has his phone out and is recording the AI both audibly and visually.
AI: “…and that’s how you get the value of a. Now, did you want those directions to the nearest 24-hour [Chain Restaurant], or perhaps you had any questions about our menu for when this location opens for breakfast?”
Customer: “Yeah, breakfast sounds great, but before I can have that I need to get the value of a for this question…”
This goes on for ten more questions and takes over an hour. I don’t listen to the whole thing, but I skip to the end to hear the tail end of the conversation, where the guy thanks the machine and drives away.
I go back to the manager.
Manager: “Did you see the footage?”
Me: “I did.”
Manager: *Gesturing to his computer screen, which shows the AI transcripts.* “Can you explain what the f*** I’m looking at?”
Me: “You’re looking at someone who wants to get their homework done but doesn’t want to use up any AI tokens.”