Taco Bell is rethinking the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at US drive-thru restaurants after millions of comical videos of technology mistakes have been seen.
In one clip, it appeared that a customer crashed the system by ordering 18,000 water cups, but another became more and more angry as the AI repeatedly asked him to add more drinks to his order.
Since 2023, fast food chains have deployed technology in more than 500 locations in the US with the aim of reducing mistakes and speeding up orders.
However, it appears that AI provided the complete opposite.
Dane Mathews, Chief Digital and Technology Director at Taco Bell, told the Wall Street Journal that AI is rolling out has challenges.
“It disappoints me sometimes, but sometimes it really surprises me,” he said.
He said the company is “learning a lot,” but he's probably thinking carefully about where to use AI, such as not using it in drive-thru.
In particular, Matthews said that humans may be better off taking orders, especially when restaurants get busy.
“We help coach when to use voice AI and teams that are better to monitor or intervene,” he said.
The issues have been built online as dissatisfied customers complain about the service to join social media.
One clip on Instagram has been viewed over 21.5 million times, indicating that “big mountain dew” and the AI voice orders to respond continuously.
It's not the first time that AI has encountered a problem with not doing it right when it comes to processing food and drink orders.
Last year, McDonald's withdrawal of AI from its own drive-thru as technology misinterpreted customer orders. As a result, one person accidentally added bacon to their ice cream, and hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets were accidentally added to their order.
However, despite some of the virus problems Taco Bell faces, it says that since its introduction, 2 million orders have been successfully processed using Voice AI.
