tw0122
6 days ago
One 2023 TikTok, appears to show the drive-thru assistant place order after order of McDonald’s chicken nuggets on one car’s tab, despite the customers asking it to stop while laughing. Additional posts show an array of other mishaps — such as it adding strange extras, like ice cream with ketchup and butter, or picking up orders from other nearby cars.
Unnamed sources familiar with the technology told CNBC that the technology has had difficulty interpreting different accents and dialects, among other challenges affecting order accuracy.
McDonald's declined to comment about the automated order taker's accuracy. In an initial statement, IBM said that “this technology is proven to have some of the most comprehensive capabilities in the industry, fast and accurate in some of the most demanding conditions," but did not immediately respond to a request for further comment about specifics of potential challenges.
The Armonk, New York-based tech company also said that it is currently “in discussions and pilots” with several other quick-serve restaurant clients interested in the automated order taker.
According to trade publication Restaurant Business and CNBC, which obtained a memo sent to franchisees last week, the automated order technology will be shut off in McDonald's locations testing it “no later than July 26, 2024.”
Both IBM and McDonald’s maintained that, while their AI drive-thru partnership was ending, the two would continue their relationship on other projects. McDonald's said that it still plans to use many of IBM’s products across its global system.
In December, McDonald's launched a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud. In addition to moving restaurant computations from servers into the cloud, the partnership is also set to apply generative AI “across a number of key business priorities” in restaurants around the world.
dletizia
1 week ago
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White Castle is taking drive-thru orders using an AI voice system that claims to be more accurate than a human
Grace Dean
Jun 17, 2024, 9:31 AM ET
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Read in app?Drew Angerer/Getty Images
White Castle uses SoundHound's voice AI system to take drive-thru orders at 15 restaurants.
White Castle says the aim is to free up time for staff and make sure customers don't feel rushed placing their orders.
SoundHound, which also works with Panda Express and Chipotle, claims that its tech is "more accurate than a human."
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Go to a White Castle restaurant in St Louis, Cincinnati, or Merrillville Indiana, and you may have the option to place your order with someone called Julia.
Julia isn't a cashier, though. Julia is a voice AI.
White Castle is just one in a long line of restaurant chains toying with drive-thrus powered by voice-recognition AI. Chains such as Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Checkers & Rally's have all tested or introduced voice AI drive-thrus.
The aim is to use the tech to free up workers' time so restaurants can either reallocate staff away from order-taking to roles that can't be automated or simply cut their labor costs by reducing the number of workers they need to operate.
But voice AI drive-thrus are far from achieving widespread adoption.
Firstly, they still make mistakes. Last year, restaurant-tech company Presto Automations revealed in an SEC filing that over 70% of its voice AI orders required assistance from off-site human workers. And McDonald's was mocked on TikTok over issues with its voice AI-powered drive-thrus. McDonald's is ending its test with IBM and pulling the technology from its restaurants.
And some critics fear that widespread use of AI at restaurants will ultimately put workers out of jobs, too.
White Castle started using SoundHound's AI voice-recognition services in a restaurant in Merrillville in 2022, Jamie Richardson, White Castle's VP of marketing and publication relations, told Business Insider.
The burger chain now uses it at 15 restaurants, some of which use it for multiple drive-thru lanes, he said.
White Castle previously announced plans to deploy it in more than 100 drive-thru lanes by the end of 2024. Richardson confirmed that it's on track to reach this target.
He said that White Castle's voice AI system was designed to remove a "stress-inducing situation," freeing up time for staff who have to multitask at the drive-thru and taking the time pressure off customers who may otherwise feel rushed. Orders are more accurate, too, he said.
Richardson said that White Castle hadn't cut workers' hours at its restaurants since adding the technology. Instead, workers can focus on preparing food and greeting customers at the drive-thru window when they collect their order, he said.
"It's really been a great investment and one we're eager to continue," he said.
AI was used to solve the labor crunch
Restaurant executives have been paying attention to voice AI drive-thrus for years, but a struggle to recruit and retain workers in the summer of 2021 intensified this.
SoundHound is one of a growing number of companies offering voice AI services to restaurants.
"We're more accurate than a human," Ben Bellettini, SoundHound's senior vice president of restaurant sales, told BI.
If customers don't want to order using the voice AI system, they can ask to speak to a human, he said. But "well over 90%" of orders don't involve any human interaction, he said.
SoundHound says that using its voice AI drive-thru is faster than ordering at a human agent because customers don't have to wait for a cashier to be free when they pull up to the ordering station or wait for them to manually enter orders into their till.
SoundHound doesn't just offer services for drive-thrus. It also provides voice AI tech for restaurants to take orders over the phone and at digital kiosks and offers back-of-house technology where staff can ask questions through a tablet or headset and get information from their employee handbook on what to do if the fridge breaks or how to clean the fryer.
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hssbwwmp
2 weeks ago
More on NVDA's investments in other companies including SOUN:
Nvidia Owns These 4 Stocks. Heres How Theyre Doing. -- Barrons.com
11:37 AM ET 6/8/24 | Dow Jones
Angela Palumbo
Nvidia has been one of the best-performing stocks on Wall Street since 2023, amassing holdings in four companies along the way. So, how have these stocks been doing?
First, a bit of context. Nvidia stock has surged 144% in 2024 and 212% over the last 12 months as investors snapped up shares of the chip making company, whose products are used to power artificial intelligence. In May, Nvidia reported much stronger first-quarter earnings and revenue than Wall Street expected -- and the stock has climbed 27% since then.
According to Nvidia's most recent 13F form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as of March 31, 2024, Nvidia has stakes in four publicly traded companies: Arm Holdings, Nano-X Imaging, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and SoundHound.
Nvidia declined to comment to Barron's on its holdings.
Nvidia's second largest stake is in Arm Holdings, a U.K.-based chip maker with a $143 billion market capitalization. American depositary receipts of Arm have jumped 82% this year, as semiconductor stocks continue to benefit from investor excitement about the future of AI. Nvidia owns 1,960,784 shares of the company, which are valued at $268.9 million.
News in May that the company has plans to launch its first AI semiconductors in 2025 have also pushed Arm shares higher.
Meanwhile, SoundHound and Nano-X stocks are having their best years on record, jumping 119% and 23% in 2024, respectively. Nvidia owns 1,730,883 shares of SoundHound -- an AI voice technology company with a $1.6 billion market cap -- which are valued at $8.34 million. SoundHound has also benefited from the AI investing frenzy.
As for Nano-X, Nvidia owns 59,632 shares of the medical imaging systems developer, which are worth $483,019. Nano-X, which has a $468 million market cap, announced on Wednesday that it has launched an AI functionality into its Second Opinions online medical consultation, a platform that connects patients with radiologists for additional consultations on their medical diagnoses. The AI technology is intended to promote early detections of chronic conditions on chest and abdominal CT scans, according to a company news release.
Out of the four companies Nvidia invests in, the chip maker's largest stake is in Recursion Pharmaceuticals, owning 7,706,363 shares that are valued at $69.4 million. Recursion is a clinical-stage biotechnology company with a $2.1 billion market cap.
Unlike the other holdings, Recursion stock has dropped 13% to $8.61 this year -- and is on pace to have its worst year since 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Recursion announced in July 2023 that Nvidia had invested in the company as they work toward developing drugs with the help of AI.
Tahoe2468
1 month ago
News is good and positive
2 Growth Stocks With Great Long-Term Potential in the New Bull Market
John Ballard, The Motley Fool
Mon, May 20, 2024 at 4:10 AM CDT4 min read
In This Article:
The stock market has historically delivered an average-annual return of about 10% since 1927. After falling in 2022, the major indexes have risen to new highs this year and are kicking off a new bull market. This means investors could be looking at a long stretch of good returns, considering that bull markets tend to last longer than bear markets.
Let's look at two promising tech stocks that could deliver significant gains over the next decade.
1. Soundhound AI
New bull markets are often led by stocks of high-growth companies that are disrupting old ways of doing things. From that perspective, it's no surprise that leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) delivered huge gains for investors last year. Soundhound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) is a leader in voice assistance that is seeing interests for its technology from automotive companies, restaurants, and Internet of Things (IoT) product makers.
The productivity gains from using AI could add trillions of value to the global economy, and we can see this playing out in the number of restaurants that are starting to use Soundhound's Smart Ordering product. Many leading restaurant brands are using Smart Ordering to process customer orders, including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Five Guys, Applebee's, and Jersey Mike's. The company's revenue, which is partly generated from royalties and subscriptions, jumped 73% year over year last quarter.
The stock rocketed to a high of $10.25 earlier this year before selling off to its current share price of around $5. These wild swings are the name of the game for small-cap growth stocks. But investors should prepare for more volatility until the company can prove it can deliver profitable growth. It reported a net loss of $33 million, or $0.12 per share, last quarter.
Meanwhile, investors are already valuing the business at an expensive price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 25. This high valuation implies the expectation for higher margins over time, so the risk is that it fails to successfully monetize its voice technology.
The good news is that Soundhound AI's focus on earning royalties and making money from subscriptions should lend itself to a profitable business over the long term. Indeed, its gross margin of more than 70% is consistent with other profitable software companies, so investors should expect the company to see progress on the bottom line as it continues to win new customer deals.
Assuming the company continues to execute on cost controls, the long-term upside for this small-cap stock could be massive.
Tahoe2468
2 months ago
AI stocks soundhound and AGBA!!! Yesss!!!
Triller Corp. is being sold in an all-stock transaction, as the Hollywood-based content platform looks to align itself as a “digital leader” and a strong alternative to TikTok. The merger with AGBA Group Holding Ltd. will mark the completion of Triller’s long-running plan to go public, a journey which included the cancellation of a multibillion-dollar reverse merger in 2022. Triller said the combination of Hong Kong-based AGBA’s financial expertise with Triller’s content creation capabilities will “set the stage” for Triller to emerge as a prominent competitor to TikTok.
Triller markets itself as an artificial intelligence-powered platform for creators and brands to promote content, generate commerce and engage with fans. It will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of AGBA through the transaction, which will create a combined company valued at $4 billion. Triller’s restricted stock unit holders and shareholders will receive 407 million shares of AGBA’s stock and will own 80% of the resulting combined company, while AGBA’s shareholders will own the remaining 20%. In the day following the deal’s announcement on April 18, AGBA’s stock price increase by about 158% to $1.03 per share. The deal has been approved by both companies’ boards and is pending regulatory and stockholder approvals.
“We believe the market is still in the process of digesting the news of the merger,” a company spokesperson said. “The AGBA and Triller teams are working at full speed to close the merger and implement plans and processes (to) allow us to take advantage of current market conditions and believe that the share price will reflect the full value inherent in our transaction in due time.”
Triller will remain in Hollywood and plans to develop a new content creator-focused headquarters at a still-undecided location in Los Angeles. The company added that it also plans to expand its team, which currently has a headcount of about 200. A Triller spokesperson said it doesn’t have any exact number of people it’s looking to hire but is actively seeking front- and back-end developers, influencer and talent management, operations personnel, salespeople and marketing positions. They added that the creator headquarters is still “early stage” and will include a gym, stage, podcast studio and event space.
Triller Chief Executive Bobby Sarnevesht will stay on in his role following the merger, and AGBA group president Wing-Fai Ng will serve as chief executive of the combined company. Sarnevesht said in a statement that Triller believes the deal will be the most efficient route for the company to access public capital markets and secure the liquidity needed to achieve rapid growth and new milestones.
“Through this merger, we are poised to accelerate our innovation trajectory and significantly expand our market presence, creating unparalleled value for our users and stakeholders globally,” Sarnevesht said.
Prior to the merger announcement, Triller filed for a direct listing on the NYSE last August. In January, it filed an amended S-1 indicating that Triller intended to execute that direct listing at an unspecific date this year. The amended filing also showed that, due to an intentional purge of “bot” and duplicate accounts, its user count had declined from 500 million to 327 million.
“Triller will effectively be going public upon consummation of the merger … making a standalone direct listing unnecessary,” a spokesperson said.
Triller currently has about $378 million of total liabilities, including $172 million of long-term debt and $81 million of warrant liabilities. A spokesperson said a significant portion of the company’s long-term debt will be converted into equity and a cashless ‘net’ exercise warrant will take place, which will reduce Triller’s liabilities by $185 million. The remainder of Triller’s liabilities are reportedly related to day-to-day operations and will be assumed by the combined new company upon the merger’s closure.
“These actions are indicative of the confidence Triller’s shareholders have in Triller and reflect their support towards the merger,” the companies said.
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