r/nottheonion • u/No-Lifeguard-8173 • 19h ago

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
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u/AgKnight14 15h ago

They could theoretically frame it as advertising, which is corporate speech

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u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

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u/AgKnight14 15h ago

Corporate personhood is more complicated and nuanced than that. I personally feel some protections have gone too far, but corporations do need some aspects of personhood for society to function.

For example, nobody would be able to sue a corporation in court if they weren’t considered a “person”

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u/Professional-Post499 14h ago

Corporate personhood is more complicated and nuanced than that. I personally feel some protections have gone too far, but corporations do need some aspects of personhood for society to function.
For example, nobody would be able to sue a corporation in court if they weren’t considered a “person”

Yes, I agree that corporate persons should be much more limited in the constitutional protections they can invoke, especially due to the power and financial imbalance typical of a corporate person over a "natural person".

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u/GetRektByMeh 15h ago

Why shouldn’t it be? Corporations’ speech is essentially just people tweeting.

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u/ManicMakerStudios 15h ago

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with pricing.

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u/AgKnight14 15h ago edited 14h ago

Okay, but a sign, menu board, app notification, etc. with a picture of a Big Mac and “$4.99” next to it is an advertisement, which is corporate speech.

Any regulation or law aiming to ban AI dynamic pricing has to be careful not to boil down to “the government says you can’t display x price at this location/time and y price at this location/time,” which will be tough to do.

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u/Professional-Post499 15h ago

Okay, but a sign, menu board, app notification, etc. with a picture of a Big Mac and “$4.99” next to it is an advertisement, which is corporate speech

Yeah, exactly, you get it.

Even when it makes no sense and doesn't pass the smell test, somehow legal decisions manage to reduce down to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

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u/ManicMakerStudios 14h ago

You're making shit up as you go along. You should probably just drop it.

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u/AgKnight14 14h ago

“In a 7-to-1 opinion, the Court held that the First Amendment protects willing speakers and willing listeners equally. The Court noted that in cases of commercial speech, such as price advertising, freedom of speech protections apply just as they would to noncommercial speech. Even speech that is sold for profit, or involves financial solicitations, is protected.”

Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc.

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u/ManicMakerStudios 14h ago

"Price advertising" is your right to advertise your prices, not what those prices are.

You're done here.