In 1983, a Chinese fast-food restaurant in California hired two disco-blasting robotic waiters, much to the amusement of the locals. Tanbo R-1 and Tanbo R-2 didn’t last long though; despite being able to serve food and tell jokes, they were prone to drop things and got confused easily. Humans were rehired, natural order was restored.
Fast-forward 30 years, and despite the stark warning from Stephen Hawking that “artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”, machines are everywhere, doing everything from serving in-flight meals to delivering pizzas to driving cars. It would seem robot takeover is imminent and, ironically, man-made.
In a recent interview, the CEO of an American fast-food chain explained why a robotic workforce is so appealing: “They’re always polite, they always up-sell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late…”. They are also considerably cheaper than their human counterparts. Businesswise, it’s a no brainer.
However, last month reports emerged of robot incompetency leading to numerous layoffs and even restaurant closure in China. Apparently suffering from similar programming faults to Tanbo R-1 and Tanbo R-2, the androids were not so steady-handed, a particularly dangerous flaw seeing as piping hot soup was a popular order. Humans were rehired, natural order was restored… until the glitches are fixed.
Less ominous members of the AI community include Chef Watson, the algorithm creating unusual, yet surprisingly delicious recipes (beef, chocolate and apricot burrito, anyone?), Drinky, the robotic drinking buddy who guarantees you’ll never again drink alone, and Tomatan, a friendly droid that sits on your shoulders as you exercise and feeds you tomatoes to fight fatigue. And then there’s Carl, the robotic bartender who expertly serves up drinks and makes you wonder what a non-sentient computerised entity does with the tip.