Computer software may be able to win on a quiz show, but can it be trusted to identify groceries?
Every week I look through the sale items at my local supermarkets. I do this online, and generally go looking through by category. This week I noticed interesting placement of some items on one store’s site, which led me to believe that a robot of some kind is categorizing the items in the company’s database.
To wit:
Of course, these things are all in proper places in the physical store, but then it’s humans who place them on the shelves. As things get more automated, it wouldn’t hurt to keep this kind of thing in mind, lest we end up drinking a loaf of bread, sautéing with 10W30, or spreading toy trucks on top of toast.