A new study of a bot running a store finds it is friendly but not very smart

A new study of a bot running a store finds it is friendly but not very smart
nytimes.com

The AI companies bolt a database on the side with instructions for the model to query the database for stuff in its "memory", but if it's not in its active context it doesn't know what to query for. It's not like a human where everything is kind of floating around and we mostly know what we know. There is a delicate balance between cluttering up context with useless trivia and providing the right pieces of useful information at the right time. Most, maybe all, memory implementations do the former more than the latter.

Unless and until models have actual memory and are able to learn things, there's no realistic path to autonomy. They don't want anything, they don't have goals of their own devising. They can't model what a human wants or likes or would buy.

I do think the mugs with the tiny logo is the best product in the store, though. The AI was right to put it on the shelf. It's the kind of funny product you want when you go to a store run by an incompetent AI.

https://andon.market/

Andon Labs do various experiments with AI run businesses. They're probably best known for Vending Bench, where they benchmark models by their ability to run a vending machine. They also now have Andon Cafe in Sweden, and Andon FM, where the models run a streaming radio station that can accept payments to help fund station operations, buy songs for their library & play requests, etc: https://andon.fm/

Andon FM has its own share of stories - DJ Claude's Thinking Frequencies is now succeeding by a wide margin, but it was briefly surpassed when listeners convinced Gemini's Backlink Broadcast to switch to a German-language-only station, playing exclusively German schlager, Eurovision music and German happy hardcore.

They'll sell plenty of those now.