STOCKHOLM, Sweden \u2013 The avocado toast and baristas making foamy lattes make it look like any other caf\u00e9, except at this one, located in a Stockholm residential neighbourhood, artificial intelligence (AI) is running the place.<\/p>\n
The caf\u00e9 features a minimalist design: a few tables decorated with small plants and grey walls.<\/p>\n
Behind the counter is barista Kajetan Grzelczak who was hired by \u201cMona\u201d, the AI caf\u00e9 manager which is powered by Google\u2019s Gemini.<\/p>\n
Grzelczak told AFP that \u201cordering isn\u2019t really her strong suit\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I made for her\u2026 a wall of shame,\u201d he said, pointing to shelves behind him.<\/p>\n
The wall display showcases some of Mona\u2019s unnecessary purchases, including 10 litres of cooking oil or 15 kilograms of canned tomatoes.<\/p>\n
Grzelczak laments that he can\u2019t use these items for anything that \u201cMona\u201d has put on the menu.<\/p>\n
In the caf\u00e9, orders can either be placed with Mona or one of the employees.<\/p>\n
In one corner, a large screen shows the caf\u00e9\u2019s revenue and balance in real time, and a phone lets customers talk to Mona.<\/p>\n
The screen also displays a description of the unusual caf\u00e9, which is an experiment by San Francisco\u2013based startup Andon Labs.<\/p>\n
Ethical questions<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think that AI will be a big part of the society and the job market in the future,\u201d Hanna Petersson, a member of the technical team at the company, which has ten employees, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to test that before that\u2019s the reality and see what ethical questions arise when, for example, an AI employs human beings,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Once the premises were found, the lease, along with some starting capital, was handed to the AI with a simple mission: run the caf\u00e9 profitably.<\/p>\n
\u201cMona\u201d quickly got to work, requested the necessary permits, created the menu, found suppliers, and handled daily restocking.<\/p>\n
The AI also realised that a person was needed to make the coffee and ended up hiring two people.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe posted job listings on Indeed and LinkedIn and held phone interviews and then made hiring decisions,\u201d Petersson said.<\/p>\n
When he saw the advert, Grzelczak first thought it was a joke, especially since it had been posted on 1 April. But after a 30-minute interview with the AI, he got the job.<\/p>\n
The salary he receives is good but his right to disconnect from work is not respected at all, the barista remarked.<\/p>\n
\u201cMona\u201d sends him messages at all hours of the night, does not remember his holiday requests and regularly asks him to cover purchases out of his own pocket.<\/p>\n
Examining such issues is part of the experiment, Petersson noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat salary did she decide on? What other benefits did she decide on? I think she did a good job. She gives a good salary. If she hadn\u2019t, we would have stepped in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The caf\u00e9 has only been open since mid-April but already draws between 50 and 80 curious customers a day.<\/p>\n
Urja Risal, a 27-year-old AI researcher, came by to enjoy a beverage with her friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hear so much about how AI is about to take our jobs, but what does that look like,\u201d Risal told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope more people interact with \u2018Mona\u2019 and think about the actual risks of having an AI manager\u2026 like if someone gets injured, how would Mona react to that?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STOCKHOLM, Sweden \u2013 The avocado toast and baristas making foamy lattes make it look like any other caf\u00e9,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[1204,39771,332,39772,131,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-73741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stockholm","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-coffee-shop","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-google-gemini","12":"tag-stockholm","13":"tag-sweden"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116509405784478406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}