These days, it seems like artificial intelligence is infesting every corner of life. The well-financed tech has strangled the internet as we know it, ruined once-beloved artists, and dragged cherished news outlets to ruin.

With the avalanche of slop cascading from corporate America, it's probably no surprise that fast food executives are trying to shoehorn the tech alongside the Cinnabon Delights and Quesaritos of that beloved American institution, Taco Bell.

On Tuesday, Yum Brands — the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut — announced it was partnering with tech giant NVIDIA to "integrate AI into the restaurant and retail industry at an unprecedented scale."

In a press release, the company hyped up its three-pronged approach to integrate AI into the fast food experience. Using proprietary software called "Byte by Yum," the food conglomerate says it will soon be using AI to take orders, keep track of cars waiting in the drive-through, and analyze restaurant sales performance.

All that stuff might be exciting for shareholders, but it remains to be seen what the response is from consumers, many of whom are repulsed by AI-powered customer service. Despite this, retailers are embracing innovations like AI surveillance cams that falsify shoplifting reports, vending machines that sell ammo with facial recognition, and artificial car salesmen that agree to sell brand new Chevvy Tahoes for $1, forcing the dealership to renege on the offer. Cramming AI into fast food, you might argue, is pretty innocent in comparison.

And it would be, if not for the army of workers manning tens of thousands of fast food stores throughout the US. For those workers, Byte by Yum is less a schlocky AI grab, and more an expansion of the tech-fueled panopticon of wage labor.

Specifically, Yum will be using AI to expand its "Computer Vision Enhanced Operations" — the same system it wants to use to track cars idling in the drive-through — to optimize "back-of-house labor management through real-time analytics and alerts." Translation: it wants to use AI surveillance to track low-wage employees.

It's a pretty dystopian goal when you consider the median fast worker makes just $29,540 a year, well below what most would consider a livable wage. (Yum Brands CEO David Gibbs, meanwhile, is worth an estimated $52 million.) Evidently, the Yum's C-suite executives feel there's more to squeeze from their overstressed workforce, and AI is just the tool for the job.

Though Yum's national rollout of AI-surveillance might be the biggest, it's far from the first. Last year, a Forbes investigation reported an experimental new AI system going live in over 100 hundred franchised Dairy Queens, KFCs, and Taco Bells throughout the US. That program was used to track employee's conversations, speed in the kitchen, and wasted food.

What Yum's proprietary software tracks will be anyone's guess. These days, corporations are using technology to more and more invasive ends, like to track bathroom breaks and monitor workers' health. Customers, meanwhile, just want Taco Bell to bring the damn Enchirito back.

More on Taco Bell: National Hero Makes Perfect 3D Scan of a Choco Taco Before They Disappear Forever


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