Check out the video of the Wall Street NYC Sweetgreen location, 67 Wall St, New York, NY 10005. That is my Chicken Pesto Parm moving down the line.
I want to simplify what I am about to write. On a recent lunch trip to SweetGreen on Wall Street I was struck by the new automated machine that replaced a dozen lunchtime employees.
If you have eaten and ordered in person during a NYC lunch hour, you will know there usually is a greeter with an iPad who takes your order, a line out the door, and 4-8 line workers who are building custom salads. Then another employee who takes your payment. And finally an employee who hands you the salad, or a runner who places your to go order on the take out shelves.
If you ordered on an app the only difference is you don’t need to interface with the order person or the payment person.
This restaurant and most SweetGreens will be moving to the automated system. I also asked the human worker if they will be discounting my salad for all the money they saved by not employing the previously needed humans. She chuckled and said, “no, they are still paying for the robots.”
Automation is nothing new. But I suspect many fast food co like Starbucks, Chipotle, and others will adopt this model.
That is going to be millions of jobs displaced benefiting corporations. Not the consumer as the cost efficiency will not be passed down.
No one asked us if we want this. This is someone else’s future we are being forced into.
I would like to conclude with this. If you are a parent or young person. You need to instill into the next generation their last battle ground will be to be in careers where they can create something. Create art, financial modeling, create systems for robotics, ai, cyber attack prevention and blockchain, medical areas where robots have not been able to replace humans, etc.
While we race toward this watered down human-less transactional culture, areas where there are fees to reconnect with sensuality and humanity will command a premium.
Soon the poor who all fall victim will live in cities like Zaun in the animation series Arcane. While a few plutocrats will govern.
PS the salad tasted just the same as if a human had assembled it.
Areas I see quick destruction for humanity…
Service Sector and retail workers (Robots)
Uber Drivers (AI Cars)
UPS/Fedex/US Postal workers (AI Robots)
Teachers (AI Robots)
Companions and Sex Workers (AI Robots)
Construction workers (AI Robots and factories building cookie cutter tiny homes)
Wall St (AI Systems)
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