Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
@evacide I'm happy the press starts to put some bearish pressure on AI, that's how to pop a bubble
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
@evacide The fact that they don't seem to understand that I don't actually want to talk to anyone, especially not a chatbot, before I have my coffee, clearly demonstrates their gross incompetence.
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@evacide I really think you are getting this wrong.
@guy_bockamp @evacide Care to explain?
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
@evacide can't count beverage ingredients but it will absolutely do everything else possible right?
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
@evacide This is not LLM btw. It's warehouse management system that used lidar to track items. It's GOOD technology that we want to succeed - nobody should work warehouse inventory manually.
AI hate is so unserious.
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@evacide This is not LLM btw. It's warehouse management system that used lidar to track items. It's GOOD technology that we want to succeed - nobody should work warehouse inventory manually.
AI hate is so unserious.
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@evacide This is not LLM btw. It's warehouse management system that used lidar to track items. It's GOOD technology that we want to succeed - nobody should work warehouse inventory manually.
AI hate is so unserious.
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@energisch_ @evacide It is possible that “Sasha Rogelberg” writing for Yahoo Finance is a non-native speaker, but seems unlikely. I think it’s much more likely that they are under extreme pressure, probably had most of their team laid off, and either chose to or were required to use an LLM to write the story. Not saying it’s a false story, seems like it’s probably true. But the slop makes it un-trustworthy. And I am so fucking tired of having to wonder about every article, “is this real or just completely made up?” Not exactly a hot take around here, I know.
@pier @energisch_ @evacide Sasha Rogelberg seems to be real, at least she has articles with different outlets, a photo, and socials.
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@pier @energisch_ @evacide Sasha Rogelberg seems to be real, at least she has articles with different outlets, a photo, and socials.
@pier @energisch_ @evacide I'm not sure if two articles per day is a normal output for a non-slop journalist?
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
CVS has replaces its simple phone tree "choose 1 to speak to a pharmicist" with AI and I end up screaming "Operator" repeatedly at the end of the interaction because it can't function. I invariably begin my voicemail, once I get there, with some strong words for management.
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
@evacide Discounting the eventual elimination of something like 90% of contemporary jobs via AI because of anecdotes like this is equivalent to laughing at a broken down Model T on the side of a trail in 1913 as you pass by in your trusty horse-drawn carriage, shaking your head at all the people saying the automobile is the future.
The problem with AI is not that it doesn't work. The problem with AI is that it, increasingly, does.
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
Despite what Donald Trump thinks, I could only boycott my Starbuck's purchases down by 100% (which wasn't much, really, because their coffee always tastes burnt and I didn't like it). But, can I multiply my boycott by buying coffee from their competitors?
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
“One general theme that to me is … a little bit perplexing, is how, on many levels, [return on investment] seems not to be a main consideration [of AI tools]—the promise that down the road all this is going to make sense,” Gallino said. “That is something that can be out of focus in the middle of the hype.”
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@evacide love how yahoo decides to "enhance" that story with an LLM that you can query (even if that would yield anything useful: why not do that upfront once, instead of doing it per-reader?? This is just cost-maximization, no matter the perceived benefits)
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Throwing one more story into the "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder.
Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas
"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.
Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com)
@evacide What's fascinating about this is that basic math is pretty much the absolute minimum we expect of ANY computer. A disposably cheap pocket calculator I can pick up from a dollar store will do it flawlessly and reliably. AI has no excuse. More accurately, the people making and selling it have none.
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@guy_bockamp @evacide Care to explain?
@lennybacon @evacide It feels hard to hit the right tone here.
I sense there are a great many who believe that AI is a hype (there is clearly truth to it). But a majority on Mastodon seems not to believe in any real-world effects, in particular referring to the job market.
They are totally wrong:
This is not a case of noobs in suits will die trying stupid things. Stupid things will arrive anyway.
I am totally certain: the effects are/will be real just as much as the hype bubble is/will be.
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@lennybacon @evacide It feels hard to hit the right tone here.
I sense there are a great many who believe that AI is a hype (there is clearly truth to it). But a majority on Mastodon seems not to believe in any real-world effects, in particular referring to the job market.
They are totally wrong:
This is not a case of noobs in suits will die trying stupid things. Stupid things will arrive anyway.
I am totally certain: the effects are/will be real just as much as the hype bubble is/will be.
@guy_bockamp @lennybacon If you could point to the place where I said that AI would not have any real-world effects, I would be happy to have that argument, but I didn't, so I don't think it's worth getting into. I am not bothered by the fact that not every one of my Mastodon posts includes a lengthy and nuanced discussion of my position on this topic.
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@guy_bockamp @lennybacon If you could point to the place where I said that AI would not have any real-world effects, I would be happy to have that argument, but I didn't, so I don't think it's worth getting into. I am not bothered by the fact that not every one of my Mastodon posts includes a lengthy and nuanced discussion of my position on this topic.
@evacide @lennybacon I did not say you did.
Insinuating that you have an "Is AI going to replace all jobs?" folder in which to throw the story of Starbucks rewinding its AI experiments, however, gave me the impression that you collect stories of how firing workers to replace them with AI would fail.

