Dec 9th, 2023 Saturday Cloudy
On our trip to Albuquerque, we came across a Taiwanese hot pot restaurant. While we certainly did not fly to New Mexico for Asian food, after a few days of exploration in the dry desert weather, my stomach was craving something soupy with more vegetables (other than chili peppers or lettuce), so we went to give this place a try.
The food was mediocre – not good enough to entice me back, but acceptable to taste once in a while. However, our attention was caught when the star of the restaurant, a drink serving robot with a cartoon cat face (the screen) and cat ears, passed by and announced in her (?) cute voice, “Table A4, please take your drink.” After the customers followed the instruction and clicked “done” on the screen, the robot put up a smiley cat face and “said”, “thank you!” before turning to slide back to the kitchen.
Using robots as servers seems to become popular, at least in some Asian countries. The scope of the service though, is limited to deliver the food from the kitchen. Either the customers are responsible for moving the food plates/cups onto the table themselves, or another waitstaff needs to do the job. In the former case, the restaurants could potentially save on labor cost of hiring servers, which could be offset by the maintenance cost of the robots (the kittybot broke down once while we were eating). In the latter case, I suspect the main benefit of these robots is just their novelty and cuteness. After all, it sounds cool to be served by robots, right?
Maybe. Sometimes.
I think humans have an innate need for human interaction. In a completely automated world where I can get everything I want without ever talking to another person, it might be more efficient, but probably leaves me feeling isolated. The connection between two humans will never be the same as the “connection” between a human and a robot. Research has found that even daily routine interaction with strangers (“peripheral relationship”) plays a role in our mental wellness. On the other hand, there are days when I could be so overwhelmed due to too many transactional interactions with people I barely know, that having to talk to a waiter or waitress (and displaying appropriate table manners in front of them) is exhausting. I would be perfectly fine ordering food on an electronic pad and receiving my dinner from a robot cat.
Of course, if the server is well-trained, able to provide good suggestions of the menu, or (in the best case) can strike a sophisticated conversation with me, that would significantly add to the enjoyment of my dining experience, I would definitely prefer him/her to an emotionless robot (and I would tip accordingly). Unfortunately, most of the time, the servers nowadays do nothing except bringing drink, taking the order, and transporting the food, all of which can be faithfully done by a robot. I hardly ever remember the name or the look of my server, yet they expect a generous tip nevertheless. WHY?!
Perhaps the increasing prevalence of automation should push us to think more. What is the value that humans can uniquely contribute to the society? What exactly distinguishes humans from artificial intelligence? Will we (or should we) all be replaced by numbered bots someday?
These questions will remain a controversy for years to come. Meanwhile, I watched the kittybot carrying four bubble teas rolling by to a table, greeted by “ooh”s, “ahh”s, and flashes from phone cameras.