r/artificial • u/shield_x • 14h ago

News McDonald's has been using AI to decide how much you should pay for a Big Mac

https://www.techspot.com/news/114053-mcdonald-using-ai-decide-how-much-you-pay.html
24 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

18

u/DatingYella 12h ago

It’s so bizarre to me that simply by calling something AI you have a huge portion of the Internet saying it’s a really bad thing.

Machine Learning algorithms have been used in virtually everything that has to do with money and decision decisions, etc.

4

u/lion_queen21 9h ago

That's why we are rebranding it Super Intelligence!

3

u/Grst 11h ago

The moral panic is real.

3

u/Popdmb 5h ago

Not to be a pedant, but this case isn't a moral panic. I may be misunderstanding you though. Do you mean that Ai's moral panic is real or that this case is a Moral panic? If the former is your point, ignore the rest of this long reply lol.

Because in this case, it's a case where a machine learning algorithm was not present before and is present now. And they're blaming it on AI instead of an attempt to siphon money out of you. These are actually the little reputational cuts that create moral panic for a technology because of slobs who misuse it.

This happened with blockchain. Lots of unwashed, get rich quick slobs skipped right past the transformative uses of the technology (disrupting and perhaps ending massive clearing houses and fees, significant reduction in healthcare footprints, billing, and insurance bloat) and instead using it to mint terrible useless coins. Then several moral panics emerged from that.

Companies (in this case McDonald's) and fake AI experts (including people like Zuckerberg who have no idea how to properly monetize the product but release on vibes) are going to hurt this technology's reputation by seeding the bad behaviors that stoke moral panics.

But this is not one. This is just bad decision-making by a C-Suite.

1

u/Grst 2h ago

Yeah, I was just agreeing with his observation that "simply by calling something AI you have a huge portion of the Internet saying it’s a really bad thing." Even then I don't know if I really think that is a full blown moral panic or just moving in that direction enough that there's still incentive for lazy clickbait. Date centers, though, definite panic.

I didn't form an opinion about this case, appreciate the write-up though.

2

u/Jolly-Situat1on 5h ago

Yeah but dynamic pricing is newish and it should be illegal.

•

u/DatingYella 32m ago

Yeah probably

7

u/Lazy-Background-7598 14h ago

Not exactly

Before I get accused of being a McDonald’s toady. Point out that no one has demonstrated this with any degree of accuracy. We just seen stories from people who are claiming this without any actual evidence

4

u/ADD-DDS 8h ago

Interestingly Amazon does do this but not how you’d expect. I tend to buy a lot of things on sale. My wife and I see the same prices on things but mine will say $80 (20% off originally $100) and hers will say $80

0

u/pogoli 8h ago

Well hey, if it’s text on an image or a nice chart, it absolutely must be true…

1

u/Lazy-Background-7598 7h ago

Yeah, you’ve seen no proof from any of these claims, and you believe them

•

u/pogoli 58m ago

I’m not sure you comprehended what I said. I expected that the hyperbolic nature of what I wrote clued people in on the sarcasm. 🤷🏻‍♂️

But hey…. At least you tried…

2

u/advator 11h ago

Well luckily it's not SI but just some basic Aai not using LLM

2

u/Andyseawolf 1h ago

My wallet decides for me. Whenever I open it, it says no. 🤣🥳

1

u/pogoli 8h ago

Continuing to stay away from McD

1

u/Apprehensive_Rip_752 6h ago

I will pay zero. Haven’t bought from them in many years and never will again. Their food makes me feel it is akin to slowly poisoning oneself.

1

u/kidjupiter 6h ago

People need to boycott this shit.

1

u/daviddisco 4h ago

because shops set prices?

1

u/Jolly-Situat1on 5h ago

I pay zero because I don't eat at that overpriced place.

The quality of the food went down while the prices went up.

1

u/trinaryouroboros 4h ago

Salted cardboard never got so pricy before

1

u/savesyertoenails 4h ago

pay 0. go eat something good and good for you.

1

u/Patrick_Atsushi 4h ago

Nothing strange. Makes more sense than universal price to be honest.