The idea of AI taking away jobs from people started with the promise of relegating all the menial jobs to the machines. Of course, the tool gets used for all sorts of purposes besides the menial, to varying degrees of success. But more recently, there’s one example of a robot performing the menial-ish task of frying and flavouring chicken wings, perhaps aptly called The Wingman.
The robot is made by Nala Robotics, and does the full process of not only getting fries and wings from a frozen dispenser, but also does the deep frying, flavouring and serving. There’s a Vimeo video of the process which, aside from the flavouring and serving part, doesn’t look too far out of the ordinary.
For that part of the process, The Verge reports that the company claims its The Wingman to be using “advanced artificial intelligence technology” to give customers “fully customisable fried chicken, french fries and other menu items. Also quoted was this line about the robot: it “doesn’t get sick” and “can work around the clock and cook any dish efficiently all the time, improving on quality and saving on labour costs”. Worth noting though that the rental on the robot is US$2,999 (~RM14,248) a month.
On the surface, this looks like a part of what a proper AI takeover should look like. But even the idealised video of The Wingman in action doesn’t seem all that efficient compared to a person doing the work. Not to mention that a person would be able to do more than the robot for the same monthly wage. And as The Verge points out, many fast food chains have tried to automate their kitchens, seemingly without much success. Then there are examples of robots being just plain bad at it.
(Source: Nala Robotics, The Verge)
