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The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly. Imagine what happens if jobs actually start disappearing.
(www.theatlantic.com)
this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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Technology
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Fast food is already as automated as it can be. Replacing cooks with robot kitchen is looks good as a management dream, but anyone who tried it quickly discovers that you need industrial robots, and they are fuckng expensive, and you need engineers anyway to maintain them. So you are replacing cheap cooks with outrageously expensive engineers.
"But no", some ignorant CEO says, "we're not assembling cars, we don't need pneumatic robot arm that can lift 10 tons". Yeah, you still need a robot arm, and it's just a miniaturized industrial robot, not any much cheaper.
But robot kitchen exist, and they are actually very profitable. Go to your nearest grocery shop. 99% of items on the shelves were produced by a robot. Everything in a plastic wrap, everything in a jar, was produced on a conveyor. Even fresh produce involves some kind of automation.
So robots won't fry your potatoes, because french fries have really short shelf life. Otherwise they totally could, but hiring a cook is cheaper.
Robots are already frying your potatoes and have existed for years. Given that deep fryers are the leading cause of kitchen accidents, it was one of the lowest hanging fruits to automate. https://youtu.be/PSl8Xyp1kYg