On April 1, more than 500,000 fast-food workers in California received raises, with the minimum wage for all sectors increasing to $20 an hour. The same week, the self-proclaimed “world's first fully autonomous restaurant” opened in Pasadena.
These two stories have received considerable attention in the media and are usually presented as fundamentally related. Fast food franchise owners are struggling to stay afloat amid rising labor costs, and many believe automation is the only viable solution. But this simple depiction of cause and effect paints a picture of innovation and necessity that sells fanciful myths to the masses.
I study low-wage industries in Los Angeles County, including the impact of new technology on workers. My research shows that automation does not necessarily lead to greater efficiency or lower costs for businesses, as AI advocates want the public and policymakers to believe. This kind of innovation also promises to further widen income inequality. Working people deserve their voices to be heard in decisions about when, where, how, or whether AI and automation should be used.
I visited Pasadena's new robotized restaurant, CaliExpress, to see what the future of fast food would look like (and taste like) . Outside, a slogan befitting a traveling circus was posted: “AI FRYING ROBOT MARVEL!'' Curious, I went inside and passed a facial recognition scanner with the creepy advertisement of “pay with your face.”
I ordered on the giant touch screen and watched a human employee come to life behind the counter. They quickly loaded the robot with raw beef and frozen fries and ran around the kitchen to retrieve the cooked items the robot had placed in buckets. This person then manually assembled, packaged, and delivered the food to waiting customers. A second worker cleaned up after the robot.
While an animatronic arm hurriedly dips a basket of french fries into a vat of hot oil, a show reminiscent of a bizarre science fair project, workers do most of their work behind the scenes. He was doing the following.
As in many AI stories, humans remain mission-critical. Examples abound, from Amazon's “Just Walk Out” store to local food delivery bots. Each case illustrates how the high promises of new technologies can be used as a pretext to restructure industries and infrastructure, often at the expense of workers, consumers, and communities. Masu.
Automation often provides cover for employers to double down on cost-cutting measures that lead to chronic understaffing, which increases the potential for injuries and wage theft. Automation may reduce marginal labor costs, but there is little evidence that it necessarily improves productivity, safety, or cost-effectiveness.
As I observed at CaliExpress, integrating automation into a service department often results in fewer workers doing more work. Economists have also documented this phenomenon, demonstrating a significant increase in revenue per fast food employee over the past five years. This shows that even before automation, productivity and wealth concentration were already growing in tandem. This is a sobering finding that contradicts the narrative that unsustainable labor costs are the main driver of automation.
Similarly, automation requires high levels of standardization, so consumers end up paying more for less. Fast food means a small menu with minimal customization. Meanwhile, food prices will continue to rise as they have for the past decade, far outpacing inflation and pushing corporate profits to unprecedented new heights. My order at CaliExpress (burger and fries, current menu range) was $15.44, more than double the same order at In-N-Out.
As the profits of multinational conglomerates soar, local franchisees may feel pressure to automate. But completely renovating commercial kitchens requires huge and risky capital investments, plunging already struggling small businesses into new debt.
So who can actually benefit from automation and AI?
The winners will be a new class of technodormers selling leased hardware and subscription-based software solutions to the public and private sectors. The companies developing this technology have amassed billions of dollars to impose their “solutions” on an unsuspecting public, with little input from employees, small business owners, or consumers. Ta. The fast food industry is the latest test kitchen for these ideas.
Fortunately, California has a reputation for taking bold policy actions.
In addition to raising the minimum wage, Assembly Bill 1228 also created the state's first “sectoral bargaining” council. This council brings together workers and employers to jointly decide on standards and protections for the entire industry, hopefully including the role of new technology in the workplace.
This is a fundamental development in the pursuit of workplace democracy. And the timing is auspicious given the rapid and unstoppable rise of automation and AI, including Gov. Gavin Newsom's recent executive order mandating an AI-powered overhaul of state government operations and public services. is further proven by. But until ideas like sectoral bargaining and a living wage for everyone become commonplace, there is a real risk that AI and automation will only accelerate inequality.
Unlike the novelty of unproven AI, California's new fast food bill is a form of innovation that should require policymakers to invest in, lifting thousands out of poverty and supporting marginalized workers. It gives people a seat at the table. It's more transformative than what's in store in Silicon Valley.
Brian Justy is a senior research analyst at the UCLA Labor Center.
