You don’t read “Wendy’s” and “Fresh” in the same sentence very often. Even though Wendy’s is a late night last resort only chosen when I don’t want to die at Waffle House, I can’t help wrapping my lips around a large, juicy JBC at whatever o’clock in the morning.

Wendy’s customers will soon place their orders with an AI with the hopes it will do a better job taking orders and making sure your Big Bacon Classic with only cheese, ketchup, and mustard will be delivered correctly.

Wendy’s is partnering with Google to hire a conversational AI to work drive-thru. The AI will be powered using their Large Language Model (LLM). Wendy’s estimates 75 to 80 percent of its customers prefer ordering their food using the drive through.

“Yo! What Can I Order?”

FreshAI will be trained on the Wendy’s menu and adapted with skills to handle customer orders. The new order taker was trained on top of Google’s LLM. This business model assumes companies will want to train new models using Google’s LLM as a base. OpenAI does this already with their davinci, curie, and ada models which round out their GPT lineup.

FreshAI is like any new employee. It has to be trained in the Wendy’s Way.

According to Google, the new model has been trained to “know” what milkshakes are and Frosty’s are Wendy’s milkshake-like product. It also knows other Wendy’s fan lingo. Like those JBCs I like to wrap my hands around before devouring them. JBCs are the redheaded child’s lingo for Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers.

Where Can I Order from a Chatbot

Google and Wendy’s are debuting FreshAI in Columbus, Ohio next month. If things go well, they’ll try FreshAI at other locations.

I’m pretty dubious on this actually working.

One. People are pretty ignorant on both sides of the order speaker. Often times, the order taker isn’t paying attention and I have to repeat my order. Or, they don’t know what they have on the menu. And still get it wrong. Or, the person placing the order is an idiot and doesn’t know what they want or complicate the order by only wanting cheese, ketchup, and mustard.

Two. Drive-thrus are noisy. Half of the problems originating from incorrect orders are probably sound related. Wind noise, city sounds, and annoying children complete the order completion process. I’d love to hear an AI decipher the cries from a hangry child from the siren wailing down the street for a Frosty and fries.

What About the Jobs?

I couldn’t complete this article without bringing this up. People have already predicted the death knell for hourly staff and impoverished workers by AI.

FreshAI is a harbinger of this change and we should start thinking through economic realities now. UBI is brought up a lot by a lot of smart people and we should consider this concept seriously. A lot of people may be thrown out of work if FreshAI proves itself.

Or, which I think is most likely, it’s a cute idea that works some of the time because of environmental factors. Eventually the tech will get there. Years from now. Maybe 10.

I don’t think we’re quite ready for a world with super high unemployment due to no jobs. The government needs to step in and do what they’ve done in the 70s and 80s. Support the country with unemployment offices and other middle class jobs programs.

Otherwise, we’re going to see society degrade. It’ll degrade because people will become desperate and will turn to extremes to support themselves.

None of us want to live in a world were we can’t feel safe because desperation has taken hold of our world. We’re seeing the decay of our cities because people simply don’t have options.

Dammit. We’re the United States and we’re smarter than this. Let’s figure this out before it’s too late.

-MJ

P.S. An actual picture of a JBC doesn’t look that appetizing.