Artificial intelligence might be nippy if it weren’t for all the objectively stupid applications that artificial intelligence companies force on us. (And if it weren’t also an ecological disaster, and if it actually reduced the amount of work a person had to do rather than simply reducing the labor force to further consolidate wealth for a few, and if it was even good at what it was supposed to do, and, and, and…) And here’s another case: a cafe in Stockholm is run by artificial intelligence. What could go wrong?
As reported AP Newsit’s called Andon Cafe and was created by Andon’s laboratoriesa San Francisco-based “security and AI research startup” that “stress tests” AI in real-world scenarios. Like a cafe. The recently opened Andon Cafe in Sweden’s Vasastan district is run by “Mona,” an artificial intelligence agent powered by Google’s Gemini.
Mona won’t be responsible for preparing the drinks, Andon Cafe has people to do that, but the artificial intelligence will largely take care of the rest of the operations. One of Mona’s most significant functions is interacting with customers; they can operate their phone to ask him questions about what drink they should order or anything else. “Please feel free to talk to me about the menu and the way I run the café,” is how Mona advises customers, in Swedish of course, because who wouldn’t want to desperately ask middle management about the fascinating intricacies of inventory management.
Speaking of inventory, Mona isn’t very good at it yet. According to AP News, the AI agent placed ambitious orders for the tiny cafe, including 6,000 napkins, four first aid kits and 3,000 rubber gloves. He also ordered canned tomatoes, even though there was no item on the menu that included canned tomatoes. Mona also orders too much bread from the bakery and sometimes misses the deadline entirely, forcing the staff to skip sandwiches from the menu that day.
Although perhaps the most terrifying operate of Mona was her operate on staff. In addition to concluding things like “electricity and internet contracts and [securing] permits for food service and outdoor seating,” the AI agent was tasked with staffing. He created jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed, made hiring decisions, and continues to communicate with employees via Slack, “often messaging them outside of working hours, which is an unacceptable workplace in Sweden.”
Andon Cafe is being billed as a “controlled experiment” designed to “see what ethical questions arise when we have artificial intelligence employing other humans and running a company.” Which in itself is a truly stunning revelation from Andon Labs, because how in the hell do we need real-world data points to discover the ethical dilemmas caused by this terrible idea? We are beta testing human servility. And it seems like if AI is the end all be all, couldn’t we just, oh, I don’t know, ask what potential ethical questions might arise from having AI responsible for real humans? We don’t have to build all the bricks and mortar and employ flesh-and-blood workers to get to the heart of the matter. Maybe just take an introductory philosophy class at your nearest college.
But anyway, if you don’t know what you want when ordering, just call Mona, who will nudge you towards a canned tomato sandwich without bread, served on a stack of napkins.
