I have good news for servers, baristas, fry cooks and cashiers: Robots aren’t coming to steal your jobs.
How can I be sure? After all, I’ve written dozens of stories about how restaurants are installing robots to do things like cook onion rings, bus tables and answer the phone. A restaurant run entirely by machines is not a pipe dream, it’s a reality. And just think of the labor savings.
Nonetheless, I have it on good authority that while robots can help restaurants, they won’t do it by replacing human workers. That authority is a robot itself: AI chatbot sensation ChatGPT.
In case you’re not familiar, ChatGPT was launched in November by the AI research lab OpenAI. You can type a question into a box and the bot will answer you, almost instantly and at length. It’s not the first AI chatbot, but it has gotten a lot of attention for its nuanced responses and range—it can, for instance, deliver its answers in a pirate’s vernacular or in the form of a poem.
ChatGPT’s sophistication has also led to concerns that it could take people’s jobs. But it assured me that’s not something restaurants need to worry about.
“It is possible that AI-powered systems like ChatGPT could automate certain tasks that are currently performed by restaurant employees, such as taking orders or providing basic customer service,” said the bot, which draws on virtually the entire internet to generate its answers. “However, it's important to note that AI is most effective when used to augment human capabilities, rather than replace them.”
Indeed, this bot believes in the value of the “human touch” in restaurants, even though it will sadly never know that sensation.
Restaurant workers are fortunate to have their humanity going for them, because in industries where the human touch is less of a factor, like manufacturing,robots have been used to replace people.
But restaurants are different, ChatGPT said. Hospitality aside, the act of cooking itself requires creativity and coordination that is beyond the scope of today’s bots.
(Apparently GPT is not familiar with its cousin Flippy, the AI-powered robotic arm that landed a fry cook gig at White Castle. But I digress.)
“It is possible that robots or automation systems could be developed to perform tasks such as flipping burgers,” ChatGPT acknowledged, “but it would still require human oversight and maintenance.”
It suggested that the burger-flipping bot would need a manager, thus creating a job, which would seem to defeat the point of the bot.
“It's important to note that AI is most effective when used to augment human capabilities, rather than replace them.”
Regardless, the bottom line is that more robots in restaurants does not equal fewer humans, according to ChatGPT.
And let’s not forget, it said, that automation has a lot of potential benefits for restaurants. It can increase efficiency and food consistency and free up staff to do more complex work. ChatGPT noted astutely that this could help a restaurant make more money and allow it to open more restaurants, thereby generating new jobs.
Of course, ChatGPT is not sentient, so it can only spit out information that already exists online (which in itself reveals one of the risks of automation). So it’s not surprising that its responses mirror the talking points of restaurants and tech companies that are investing in automation. They’re always careful to say that robots won’t replace workers, but will rather make their jobs easier while also helping restaurants’ bottom line. Something about that has always struck me as too good to be true.
To be clear, I have not heard of a restaurant literally firing someone and replacing them with a robot. And I’d like to believe that no restaurant actually wants to do that. But ChatGPT seemed to ignore the reality of restaurants’ labor situation, which—between rising wages and rampant turnover and a shallow labor pool—is the reason we were having this conversation in the first place.
It seems obvious that restaurants will have to use automation of some kind to operate within those conditions. That doesn’t mean they’re going to suddenly trade every employee for a robot. But they could use (and are already using) bots or other AI to plug existing holes, which could transform the labor model and result in fewer restaurant jobs in the future.
My conversation about restaurants with ChatGPT began to remind me of another industry I know well—the news industry. Could this bot, with its strong language abilities and vast well of knowledge, ever replace me as senior editor of Restaurant Business?
“Journalism is a profession that requires many human skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, analysis and interpretation of complex information, and the ability to understand context, and make ethical judgements,” it said.
“For now, AI-generated content should be considered as a tool, not a replacement, for journalists.”