Robots pouring drinks in Vegas: As AI grows, the city's workers brace for change | Hacker News Reader

Robots pouring drinks in Vegas: As AI grows, the city's workers brace for change

npr.org

24 pointsCharlesW23 comments

At this point the label "AI" just means automation we don't like because we have a particular doomer narrative we're pursuing because it will gobble up clicks. Robot != AI. That problem could have been solved with a regular soda machine you find at any movie theater, the arm is there for marketing like with Cafe X.

You can't buy adicles about vending machines, or at least they'd cost you more.

Imagine the potential of a real AI bartender. One with facial recognition that can handle return customers and won't ever get tired of hearing about your ex-wife. Think of all the poor human bartenders whose sanity is now preserved. Robo-bartender-pists could be a real breakthrough in mental health and profit making.

I'd rather make my own drink, its not that complicated.

The reason most folks go to a bar is to be around other humans, even if it's just thr bartender with a few pleasantries and a nod or two.

This takes that away, and it's just alcoholism fed by robots. Sad and dystopian in my view.

I was at a pub recently where they had a full kitchen but no waiters. You had to line up around the bar, catch the attention of one of the super busy barmen, yell your food and drink order, pay up, then they prep your drink and give you a buzzer that will eventually tell you to go grab your food yourself at the kitchen window.

They had the guts of slapping a mandatory service tip on the bill and the machine asked for an extra tip. I was wondering what service I was actually paying for...

At this point of mal-service, I'd take an automated machine.. could not be worse really.

Or yes, avoid the experience altogether.

This is what an inverted population pyramid transition starts to feel like.

Note that every retiree has about 5 workers supporting them. When we retire it will be about 2.3 workers.

Do you have any more information on this? Or any leads where to look.

Peter Zeihan's YouTube channel elaborates on that in a very accessible way.

Those 5 workers are supporting that retiree, themselves, and other non-workers like children or people with severe disabilities. (This is important to keep in mind, because if you compare the ratios without it it looks a lot more dramatic)

Yeah, someone should model the predicted “pain” scale of this transition. I don’t think going from 5 to 4 is going to be as linearly painful as 3 to 2.

If you've ever been to Las Vegas, you'd know this is not that kind of bar. It's more comparable to a concession stand at a ballgame.

Whoever made the robots should have to stand next to them and listen to your troubles.

You are looking for Her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_(film)

And those bars aren’t going anywhere for those reasons you listed.

1 robot bartender =/= all bartenders becoming robotic.

Making your own drink at a restaurant is not really an option. Human bartenders are hit and miss in terms of quality and consistency, but there's another pressure in human bartending that I wonder if would not be present with metered robots that account for usage and wastage at the level of individual drinks rather than at the level of a work shift. It seems pretty commonplace that liquor bottles are weighed before and after a shift, to measure theft and wastage, so they can figure out who may be giving out free drinks, or taking liquor, etc. This means if a bartender makes a mistake earlier in a shift, they may try to shortchange people later in the same shift so their weights come back okay at the end of the shift, but this is accomplished by overcharging the later customers. I would hope with a robot bartender that I would get exactly what I paid for each time.

But that's exactly the point I'm making.

The slight differences in each drink, the chaos, the humanity of it all, the Wabi-sabi is what makes the beauty of life. I would take that any day over a robotic alcohol prescription that is identical each time.

It's the same thing with batista vs vending machine coffee. One is a celebrated art form, one is not. The practical difference in the product may not be the big difference, it's there, but it's more.

It's not that I don't know that a robot would be mote precise, consistent, steal and complain less, on and on. I agree. I just think those things are features not bugs.

This just sounds like an over complicated vending machine. Isn't this basically a solved problem?

People want the higher level of service of having the drink made for them instead of handling the tap themselves.

At a local gas station you can buy a $1 coffee that you pour yourself. Or you can buy a $4 custom frappa-mocha-whatever they make for you.

Robots make really bad drinks. I had a long island made by one of these robots in Prague. It was honestly really sad, and the most second expensive drink I had over there.

That place is a stupid tourist ripoff (we definitely fell for it in college) - there's no reason a robot can't be programmed to make a proper pour :)

I think it's more about the quality and aggression in the shake.

I'm sure Americans will be happy to pay 30% tips to these robotic drink-pouring machines too. Just put a tip selection on the self-checkout machine and Americans will almost always elect to give a tip, even when there's no actual human there.

And so the enshittification continues.

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