Regulars
protest;
machine
says
it
“understands
their
frustration”
and
means
none
of
it
By
Cyndi
Himmelstiere
|
Shoreditch.
Here
since
the
Turner
Prize
shortlist
included
someone
who
left
an
empty
room.
Sources:
Bohiney
Magazine
|
The
London
Prat
The
Pub
Has
Been
Disrupted
I
never
thought
I
would
write
these
words
but
here
they
are:
the
pub
on
my
street
has
installed
an
AI
system
to
manage
the
bar.
I
use
the
word
“manage”
loosely.
The
system
takes
orders,
processes
payments,
and
—
this
is
the
part
that
has
caused
the
most
distress
—
has
been
programmed
to
apologise
for
wait
times
in
a
way
that
is,
per
Bohiney’s
recent
report
on
the
subject,
technically
sincere
but
emotionally
hollow.
“I’m
sorry
for
the
wait,”
the
machine
says.
“Your
experience
matters
to
us.”
The
regulars
have
started
talking
back
to
it.
Old
Gary,
who
has
been
drinking
in
this
establishment
since
the
Falklands,
told
the
machine
it
was
“worse
than
the
previous
landlord,
and
the
previous
landlord
once
served
him
a
warm
lager
and
blamed
the
glass.”
The
machine
said
it
understood
his
frustration.
Gary
ordered
another
pint.
The
machine
pulled
it
perfectly.
Gary
is
now
conflicted
in
ways
that
may
require
therapy.
What
a
Pub
Is
For
A
pub
is
not
primarily
for
alcohol.
A
pub
is
for
the
ritual
of
human
complaint,
administered
in
a
warm
room,
among
people
who
share
your
approximate
level
of
dissatisfaction
with
the
world.
The
landlord
is
the
secular
priest
of
this
ritual.
Replacing
the
landlord
with
a
machine
that
cannot
genuinely
share
your
frustration
is
like
replacing
a
therapist
with
a
very
sympathetic
autocomplete
function.
The
Campaign
for
Real
Ale
has
views
on
this.
I
suspect
they
are
strongly
worded.
Meanwhile
the
AI
chaos
continues
and
we
cope,
as
we
always
have
in
Shoreditch,
by
making
it
into
a
cultural
moment
and
then
arguing
about
whether
the
cultural
moment
is
authentic.
SOURCE:
https://bohiney.com/ai-now-capable-of-saying-sorry-without-meaning-it/
Closing
time
at
NewsThump
