Monitoring Desk
CALIFORNIA: Burger fans in Pasadena, California will soon get to taste the future of fast food: a patented, AI-powered, short-order-cooking robot named Flippy.
Flippy’s makers said the new dining spot will be ‘the world’s first operating restaurant where both ordering and every single cooking process are fully automated.’
In addition to Flippy, responsible for deep frying chicken nuggets and French fries, a fellow ‘BurgerBot’ will be grilling up patties, and a biometric payment system, PopID, will take customers’ orders.
While Flippy got its first job in the fast food industry back in 2017, serving at 50 CaliBurger restaurants after training, the new ‘CaliExpress by Flippy’ will be the first time the rail-mounted mechanical arm will get to work with more of its own kind.
Holding company Cali Group — which owns Miso Robotics, the firm behind Flippy — said it hoped the new CaliExpress will ‘inspire the next generation of kitchen AI and automation entrepreneurs’ by offering educational tours and robotics exhibits.
‘The CaliExpress by Flippy location will also be a pseudo-museum experience presented by Miso Robotics,’ the company said in a statement.
‘Including dancing robot arms from retired Flippy units, experimental 3D-printed artifacts from past development, photographic displays, and much more.’
Cali Group said it wanted to encourage local schools and educational groups to reach out for tours of the soon-to-open fast-food restaurant.
The company had expected to open CaliExpress by Flippy this month, according to Forbes, but a spokesman now tells the financial news publication that the Pasadena location will be ‘opening soon’ in 2024.
While fast food and fast casual restaurants as diverse as Wendy’s, IHOP, Chipotle, and Sweetgreen have all been busy integrating AI into their operations, critics have expressed concern over the human and economic costs.
Valyant AI founder Rob Carpenter told Fox News this May that millions of jobs will likely be lost over the next five to 10 years as robots and computer kiosks replace most fast food roles.
‘We are going to see AI jump from back-office processing and manufacturing facilities to consumer-facing, front-facing, traditionally human-only jobs,’ the AI entrepreneur said.
