A lot of voice actors are wary of generative artificial intelligence (AI), especially with how it could potentially pervade the voiceover business. Admittedly, I was one of those voice actors, and I’ll be the first to say that there have been times where I’ve been anxious about it affecting my future prospects. Then, my brother sent me this article from the BBC about Taco Bell rethinking their use of AI in their drive through. Not only did I get a good laugh out of it, but it helped ease my worries about how AI is being used as a public facing tool… or if this article is anything to go by, just a toy for some members of the public to dunk on companies using it. The assertion being, AI is being rejected and distrusted in several parts of the economy.

According to the BBC article, videos were being posted of the AI making mistakes in some of the drive-thru Taco Bell restaurants. Including one instance where a customer seemed to crash the system by ordering 18,000 cups of water (literally, not figuratively). Videos of stuff like that where the AI makes these errors have been viewed millions of times, and while I’m not expert on public relations, this doesn’t seem like a great look for AI or how it can be used, and potentially abused.

Taco Bell has rolled out AI systems in at least 500 of their restaurants since 2023 and it seems, according to the article, that the intention was to speed up the ordering process and minimize errors. If the videos are anything to go by, that effect has not been achieved. Whoops…

This article came to me on the same day that an article from Campaigns & Elections came to me pertaining to the use of AI in political ads (read the C&E article here if you’re interested). In this publication, some have claimed seeing a slowing in their political commercial businesses and they believe AI is to blame. Even though it’s largely being used for scratch tracks and any usage outside of that is pretty limited.

While there has historically been a slow down in odd numbered years, in the current era of governmental and political discourse, the drop in spending on political ads hasn’t been as drastic as it has been in decades past, though that’s been more because of the time between election cycles in the US. Now, it’s being asserted that AI has been nibbling away at some parts of the business, including political, but the effects don’t seem to be as wide spread as they’re being made out to be.

Some talent haven’t seen a slow down in their businesses, which tells me there’s largely some distrust among consumers of AI generated content, especially when used for something that is meant to inspire trust in another person like a political ad. Regardless, it’s something to at least pay attention to as it may have an impact as time goes on. Now, you may be asking yourself, “Cody, how does the Taco Bell article about AI play into this?” I’m so glad you asked…

Seeing how the public is interacting with some of these systems, and from the myriad of videos of the AI just making mistakes and not being able to handle certain kinds of tasks (which it was marketed to be able to handle) makes me think that nobody really wants this tech in every part of life. Does it have some uses? I’m sure. Are more people using it as a search tool to find what they need? Also yes. However, in its current iteration at least, it’s a sophisticated toy by tech bros, for tech bros (and for some members of the public to clown on companies using it). McDonald’s actually withdrew AI from it’s drive-throughs last year, according to the BBC article.

Bottom line: there seems to be some widespread rejection and distrust of AI systems in different parts of daily life, from fast food to political ads and everything in between. I think the technology is here to stay, but public response to it speaks for itself.