AI is Reportedly Coming to Illinois Taco Bell Drive Thru Lanes

Do you love tacos? Do you trust robots? Those are both important questions to answer as there are multiple reports that artificial intelligence is coming to Illinois drive-thru lanes.

I saw this taco report shared by Nation's Restaurant News. It says that Taco Bell already has artificial intelligence deployed in drive-thru locations in 13 states. They don't specify which ones the robots already control, but say they plan to expand to hundreds more locations by the end of 2024. Are you ready for robot tacos, Illinois?

Why is AI now being deployed in drive-thru places?

The story says Taco Bell has been working on this experiment for two years already and has found "improved order accuracy, speedier service, and profitable growth". All good things, but do you trust robots?

I'm not familiar with how Taco Bell is using artificial intelligence and it may very well be helpful and harmless, but my concern with AI wherever it's used is privacy. Will the robots be able to identify my voice from a database and track my activities and purchases? Perhaps I'm just paranoid, but I've seen how the Terminator movies end and always urge caution when it comes to robots being given power over any domain. We all know that tacos is one of the most important domains, too.