When a Stadium Adds AI to Everything, It's Worse Experience for Everyone
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The article discusses how the introduction of AI-powered self-checkout systems at a stadium led to a worse experience for attendees, sparking a discussion on the motivations behind such technological implementations and their impact on customers.
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In reality, when getting out first to market, it might be difficult for "AI" to decipher if a user added 1 of 5 available sauces to their chicken wings, so to reduce the likelihood of this error, you remove it until the technology is more mature. Speculative sure, but a strong assumption, and I doubt Mashgin would confirm this.
Maybe we're just calling all forms of automation and computer vision "AI" these days because it's sexy. Anyway: any automation that requires a human staff member to intervene to complete every run is not automation: It's just adding unnecessary technology and making the process worse. Imagine if each grocery store self-checkout required a human staff member to scan items, re-arrange things, and confirm checkout.
They always have at least one person going between each self-checkout kiosk helping confused and upset customers. Meanwhile, 1 traditional checkout lane is open with a long line. Self checkout is great to use if you know how and have a handful of items, but it sucks with a full cart due to space constraints and the bag scales being finicky.
I wish. The Wal-Mart near me no longer has staffed checkouts between 6am (opening time) and 8am. That's two hours in the morning of robots-only. I don't know about in the evenings.
traditional checkout lane is open with a long line.
I use the traditional check-out line whenever I can because where I live, the self-check line is almost always longer. It's not hard to keep an eye on the last person in the self-check line when you go to a real register to see which is faster.
I'm not a fireman on call. I'm OK spending an extra 45 seconds in a traditional line to keep a low-skilled human being employed.
Contrast that with self-checkout: There is no conveyer. You have to reach into your cart, grab one item, run it across the scanner, and place that item in a bag, then reach back over into the cart, grab one item, and so on. No pipelining at all.
I go the traditional staffed checkout route for the speed.
Here's a video of it in use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqPfYnVKwGI
Usually you will have a single staff member responsible for 4-10 checkouts to override the machine when your product doesn't register a weight, or you move items off the scale too quickly, and it wants them to check it.
It generally just works and is a lot quicker if you're just scanning a few items; surprised it hasn't really taken off in the US.
Most of the issues these days are when they introduce new features like less tolerance on the weight (sometimes adjusting already scanned items trips an error) or auto-scanning fruit and vegetables.
I'm not stupid, I know why these measures exist but there's likely a smarter way to let the small things go. Find a way to add percentages to the alerts so that it won't trigger if I rearrange the bags. Factor in the price of an item as well so that it's triggering on meat that doesn't weigh right versus a can of beans.
Oh it's not JUST that, I'm sure it's also a data-harvesting scheme, because what isn't these days?
Meanwhile over at QuikTrip, there's one person checking out two people at a time. Suffice to say, if both stores are available, I will always choose the QT.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c1kbWAttus
That being said, I see the same one-person-two-registers thing at 7-eleven, and it's very, very fast.
Maybe they were emboldened because many companies still can't even do decades-old UPC barcode scanner self-checkouts well?
The closest self-checkout to working reasonably well I see regularly would be at Whole Foods Market, at least just using the low-tech UPC and scale. I only have a few nits about it.
(Though, within the last week, the usual duct-taped-on off-the-shelf hand scanner apparently saw the wrong barcode on the front of the product label (yes, some brand did that), which wedged the station, and the employee who came over seemed like they might think I was trying to defraud the store. I've coded for a few of those scanners before, and they provide a mix of automagical easy high-value behavior and major pitfalls. There are a few kinds of interfaces, and a large fleet of settings, and you really have to wrestle the device to the ground, to make every scenario bulletproof. If the integrator wasn't careful, for some of them, you can even reprogram or brick them with an in-band barcode, and disabling this feature is buried among the numerous settings.)
The worst self-checkout I'm currently exposed to is the dumpster-fire of a major chain, which goes out of its way to fill the UI with garbage, and then doesn't do even basic sensing and state flow right. They really need to look at WFM design, and then go even further in that direction, and get the state model right. While making sure that no one's bonus is tied to garbage and dark patterns on the screen.
(Also, for return customers who nope right out of the self-checkout headache, and go to the human checkout, or get directed to it by the attendant who's glaring at all the self-checkouts, they need clean their CC terminal keypad that's visibly caked with crud, like maybe it hasn't been disinfected in a year. Especially since they mandate repeated use of it when it should default to working with just a card tap/swipe, for a high-traffic location for many sick people.)
Funny thing is, at first it was the other way around! 'Computer Vision' has always been a sub-field of AI, but the term was more widely used by academics during a previous AI winter as a way to avoid the tainted 'AI' label.
Not strictly true. Barcode readers are used by humans and are definitely automation. The ironic part though is that the automation going on here is literally object classification, which humans are good at.
The play may be to collect data and make their system better.
Per the marketing on the side, this is meant to be for my benefit in order to earn "points" and get offered "deals." I don't think I have to tell you that I did NOT install the app, and just walked further to buy one from a vendor.
There is a massive arrogance problem within tech. Everyone thinks their product should be the center of everyone else's universe. The best products are invisible/get out of the way.
I hear a lot of talk about how much pain you can inflict on people and how to extract the most value from that. Last I heard it was from a couple of media types discussing radio commercials. No care for their actual product for the end user - but an evaluation of how much people would suffer before tuning away.
Actual professional pride and care is sooo last century.
What the poster before wanted to imply was that we sacrifice safety or sustainability or some value other than material/money (which may well be true).
Everybody tries to maximize their budgets.
Less taxes is not the default. You will most likely get something else.
When extractive profits is involved you will never get a cheaper bridge unless there is fierce competition. Tenders are narrowly defined so you do not see the offers that you can build 2 bridges for the price of one.
In good markets governments keep the bridge building market hot enough so you have the supply ready for the next large projects. That is what keeps the price of big infrastructure projects down.
Hence there is a very good argument for not simply returning the tax dollars.
I do believe in Free markets. But I do believe in good governance as well.
A good example around here is that the knowledge and lessons learned from building the Storebælt Link[0] made the Oresund bridge[1] get in pretty much on budget. Whereas German political fuckery delayed the Fehmarn belt project[2] and will go hugely over budget both due to missing momentum but also due to inflation
[0] https://sundogbaelt.dk/en/about-us/finance-economics/constru... [1] https://sundogbaelt.dk/en/about-us/finance-economics/constru... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fehmarn_Belt_fixed_link
Except what happens is that now that we can build them cheaply they waste the same amount of money by turning what could have been simple I beams into a mirror finish exercise in "art" nobody asks for and was bike-shed into oblivion until the whole budget and more was used up. So the public doesn't actually reap any benefit. It just makes work for more parties on the dole. We don't actually get more bridges. We get a bigger racket.
Bureaucracies became a spoils system. In the 60s the civil rights movement would boycott companies and then demand favors. Minority groups realized the moral weakness of western society and are just in it to loot whatever they can. For them the 350 pages of spoils are very important.
And the main cost of bridges is not materials, it's design, permitting, and construction. For example: Adjusted for inflation, the new San Francisco Bay Bridge span cost $8.6 billion. Its 450,000 cubic yards of concrete weigh around 1.3 million tons, for a cost of around $6,000 per ton. Concrete is $50-75 per ton, so that's 1% of the cost.
Not preventable? (Excludable)
Not limited in supply? (Rivalous)
What can even be defined as a public good. Can air even be a public good by this definition? Even arguing in good faith I cannot wrap my head around this.
A hospital? Limited capacity even with socialized medicine. Not a public good?
Is this just an (to me) alien and extreme libertarian viewpoint I cannot fathom or am I missing something deeper?
The concrete example stands. But a world in which we do not consider bridges a public good seems rather dystopian to me. I grant you that some of those might be private. But considering all to be private and just with a handwave acknowledge that most are publicly funded seems... Odd...
The reason for the different classification is because public goods obey different economic laws. For example: because public goods are non-excludable, they have the free rider problem.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good
> businesses have learned exactly how badly they can treat you and step up to that line at every opportunity.
Will help numbers in your 401k or pension plan go up.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/bridge_constructor
Relevant Simpsons clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdMjqcjMVTc
It was fantastic.
Oh, I’m very much sure this is a feature. Because, you see, only some percentage of people will actually look at the receipt. Some fraction of them will notice the error. Some fraction of those people will actually be motivated to spend their time on the phone clawing back an extra $8 water. The complement of that small percentage is a lucrative chance to sell the same overpriced water more than once.
I saw this at a Simon mall recently.
I took a picture of the machine. Across the front of the door is a banner which reads:
I'm not going to jump through hoops like a circus animal for a Mr. Pibb. I used the water fountain instead.He got out a big printout and started showing the different demographics and their habits.
"<ethnic> woman, with a little bit of college" - she will get a credit card, charge it up to the limit, then make the minimum payment... forever.
"<ethnic> man, no college" - he will get a credit card, charge it up to the limit, might make one payment, never make another payment ever.
Then he went on to say, corporations will slant their advertising to target demographic #1 with credit card advertisements. They will make their advertisements disappear from view from demographic #2.
I kind of wonder if the whole vending system is slanted around these kinds of things. Sports fan, uses phone indiscriminately for everything, sell him an impulse snickers bar with an app, then load him down with ads for payday loans.
So, yes, way easier to sell to.
There is a store I shop at where every purchase, they ask every single customer if they "have a phone number with them", which they can type in on the point of sale device. I've waited behind people trying to remember their old phone number.
We had a card for earning points across multiple brands of supermarkets and other kinds of consumer shops.
One of those chains, Rewe, decided they didn't want to share the points with the others and went ahead, creating their own mobile app for consumer points.
The remaining chains, not wanting to stay behind, decided to do exactly the same.
Now almost every chain has withdrawn from the card program, moved into their own little app, and expect every customer to install all their apps.
I refuse to follow along, and get into interesting discussions, because employees naturally following orders that they have to nag everyone, cannot understand that I rather pay more than installing and giving my data to every chain in exchange for a few euros in discounts.
Was hoping the article would be about stadium experiences like the announcer, jumbotron, etc. all being AI-driven. When I judge the experience of gameday, concessions are like third on that list. Disappointed with the content.
I wish payment processors / consumer protection would have a significant penalty for sloppy overcharges. I've had to deal with sloppy overcharges like this (one for over $1,000) and you lose a lot of time and the outcome is just 'oppsies, my bad'. There's very little repercussion for sloppy overcharges so it's easy for them to perpetuate.
I'm not sure why the performance at this stadium was so vastly different.
You would think that overpriced concessions would be a great place for this because it can be very fast and accurate but I think this would require the food handler to make sure to use a different tray or container for each differently priced item, etc. And there may just be enough items that would be hard to affix an RFID to (metal can, etc) that would make it unfeasible.
That is a good point with the pricing making it cost effective but they probably look at it from some maximum profit POV.
Honestly something like an Automat diner style system would help with the latency and queuing and way easier to implement technically.
This is the root problem. When you take people out of the economy, what's the point of having such an economy? Such an economy cannot last indefinitely and will eventually be replaced by one that will.
An opportunity to post facts was lost, and for now until it won't, remains anecdotal.
I guess that's what marketing does to the people. But also it doesn't take many failures and broken expectations until those people decide that it's not worth the effort and stop using these tools entirely.
The experience is usually better at the smaller venues that aren't a part of strong fandom and more sensitive to the customer sentiment: indie cinemas, comedy clubs, etc.
[0]: https://idiallo.com/blog/hostile-not-enshittification