by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton | May 15, 2016 2:45 pm
It just gets better and better[1] for the minimum wage activists. I was cool with the automated kiosks that Wendy’s, McDonald’s and Carl’s Jr. are installing across the country. But I’m not sure I’m ready for robots completely running restaurants yet. KFC is taking it one step further. They just opened their first fully automated restaurant in Shanghai. No humans work there and it has the world’s first artificially intelligent robot manager who works at the front counter. The KFC restaurant there looks nothing like the ones here. They have wireless phone charging stations and I’m sure, WiFi. It’s a brave new world.
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From Zero Hedge:
Colonel Sanders is raising a robot army to serve fried chicken at a restaurant near you. KFC’s first automated restaurant, called Original+[3], went live in Shanghai on April 25th, complete with an artificially intelligent robot manager named “Du Mi” who works at the front counter.
According to Chinese news outlet Sohu[4], “‘Du Mi’ marks the first commercial use of artificial intelligence in the fast food industry. The artificial intelligence robot was launched by China’s leading web services company Baidu during its World Conference in 2015.”
KFC hopes that the hip new automated restaurant will attract young customers with its free wireless phone charging stations and human-less eating experience.
To be fair, what they are calling AI, is in reality, a conglomeration of expert systems… but whatever. Brace yourselves:
“[T]he Bank of England is preparing for automation to shed 80 million American jobs and 15 million British jobs within the next 10 to 20 years. This is approximately 50% of the US and British workforce. Forbes has put the number at 45%.” The inevitable automation of the world’s economy will reshape society as we know it. Minimum wages will no longer protect workers as employers shift to using robots who will never ask for breaks, pay raises or healthcare. Worker unions may essentially be rendered useless. Militaries will eventually no longer need humans to fight wars. Additionally, Uber, Lyft, taxi and limousine drivers, and other driving jobs could soon be replaced by self-driving cars as automation also changes the way we think about transportation altogether. Things will massively change in our work market over the next 10 years – it will be thrilling and terrifying all at once. Birth pangs for a digital age.
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Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/capitalism/kfc-opens-store-run-robots/
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