Hooba-Dooba! (Not so) Whole Foods; Let’s Talk Artificial Intelligence
As we are all getting used to the new normal, our behaviors and experiences are being reshaped in lasting ways; from how we travel and buy homes, to the level of security and surveillance we’re accustomed to, and even to the way we buy food with a booming demand for grocery delivery services.
Remember when you last visited the grocery store and some guy cut in front of you at the checkout line? And the only come back was a death stare? A small moment of joy. Well, sorry to report but there is a new shopper on the block that is resistant to the stink eye, no matter how fierce and unrestrained.
How, you may ask? Because this ‘shopper’ is a bot.
Motherboard recently discovered that people are creating bots to grab Whole Foods delivery order time slots (and we all know that snatching one of these openings is like winning a golden ticket). It’s a new take on the technology that scalpers have used to snap up the hottest concert tickets.
Some would say there are the good cops and bad cops of online grocery shopping. The good being the grocery bots that are simple browser extensions that notify you when a slot becomes available; the bad being the more sophisticated bots that take you all the way through check out. Why are those bots the bad cops? Well, they immediately put those that are tech-savvy at an advantage over those less technologically literate (sorry, Dad!). As a result, the elderly and sick, who are the ones that arguably need these services the most, especially during the current health crisis, end up suffering.
Ironically, developers first built the bots for those most in need. Data scientist Pooja Ahuja confirmed that her intention for designing and releasing one of the bots was to help people who find it extremely inconvenient to leave their home or don’t feel comfortable being outside; it was her contribution to ‘flattening the curve.’ However, data scientists probably didn’t think about these negative consequences. Want to know one other thing they didn’t predict? Accidentally buying a one-time order of 12 packs of 100 filters of vanilla frosting for a single birthday cake, instead of a subscription of one, 100-filter pack every month. Now that’s a first world problem bots can’t save you from.
Lauren Thurin, Vice President, Business Development
Amazon recently announced that it is introducing a waitlist for new online Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods customers. Fellow shoppers, take a ticket in the (virtual) line!
There are 5 new kids on the block — different robotic systems currently in use at grocery stores. They can look for spills, clean floors, check inventory, or direct customers, showing an acceleration in the adoption of robots in retail.
Applied Artificial Intelligence: A Handbook For Business Leaders by Mariya Yao, Adelyn Zhou and Marlene Jia. Don’t you love books about AIs taking over? Forget a distant future where they run our spaceships and our governments — but rather a near and practical look at what today’s AI technology means for business.
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