Human Replacement by AI Is Underway
Wendy's fast food drive-thru chatbot
Wendy’s “FreshAI” chatbot
A couple of days ago, I visited a Wendy’s fast food drive-in. While ordering, something seemed subtly different. The voice of the person I was conversing with while placing the order seemed different — too perfect, too efficient.
Because of my longterm interest in and implementation of AI technology, I suspected I might have just ordered food from an AI chatbot using a large language model (LLM) trained on Wendy’s menu selections, pricing, and other Wendy’s food-related data.
When I got home, I Googled, “does Wendy's fast foods use AI chatbot for customers to order food.” The Firefox Internet Browser I was using on my Macbook responded with a number of links to articles and information describing Wendy’s rollout of their “FreshAI” drive thru order chatbot.
AI Technology Advances
The science, database designs, and computer algorithms for creating human-like entities (e.g. chatbots like “ChatGPT” and now Wendy’s “FreshAI”) have been under development for decades. It has only been during the past several years that semiconductor and computer technologies have evolved to provide the capacity, speed, and sophistication to implement the real-time simulation of human-like speech and human-like responses using computer simulated neural networks.
Replacement Theory
THE MASS REPLACEMENT OF HUMANS BY AI TECHNOLOGY IS UNDERWAY!
Within the next few years, many lower level jobs similar to fast food human order processing clerks will be replaced by AI technologies.
As the breadth and scope of advances in AI-related technologies evolve, the replacement of humans in more sophisticated jobs and professions will expand.