A simple purchase of a hot dog at Circle K blew up Reddit: an AI-powered cash register "decided" to add an $8.5 billion donation to the Red Cross to the customer's check.
A simple purchase of a hot dog at Circle K blew up Reddit: an AI-powered cash register "decided" to add an $8.5 billion donation to the Red Cross to the customer's check.
A customer shared a screenshot of the self-service terminal on Reddit, briefly captioning it: "I just wanted a hot dog."
According to the customer, Circle K replaced two regular cash registers with terminals with elements of artificial intelligence. Since the store's only employee was busy, the man decided to take advantage of the technological novelty. He admitted that he had noticed strange "glitches" at these cash registers before - they could suddenly add lighters or products to the check that were not even close to the sensors.
"But yesterday this thing outdid itself, probably thinking I wouldn't notice the $8.5 billion donation to the Red Cross. Don't get me wrong, I respect what they're doing, but this is a bit too much," the buyer joked in the post.
The smart cash register offered to pay by card or cash, but the man, understandably, canceled the transaction. The store cashier was also shocked by what he saw, and they laughed together at the situation.
Circle K began rolling out its Smart Checkout technology in 2022, promising to install more than 10,000 of these systems in 7,000 stores. These checkouts use cameras and computer vision to recognize products without scanning barcodes, which the company promised would speed up service by 8 times compared to traditional checkouts, Dexerto reports .
However, Reddit users expressed doubts about whether artificial intelligence is to blame for this situation.
"It looks like someone just entered their phone number on the donation screen instead of the loyalty program screen," one commenter suggested.
Others picked up on the humor: "Wouldn't you like to round your check to the nearest billion for charity?"
