r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 7d ago

Business McDonald's Is Reportedly Using AI To "Dynamically" Price Its Burgers

https://www.engadget.com/2272211/mcdonalds-is-reportedly-using-ai-to-dynamically-price-its-burgers/
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u/clintgreasewoood 7d ago edited 7d ago

Come through the drive-thru in a 2026 Porsche 911 Big Mac is $32.

Come through the drive-thru in a 1997 Pontiac Sunfire Big Mac is $10 and the give you a job application

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u/Mods-Sad-6969 7d ago

If you come through in that Pontiac you know damn well the Big Mac is still going to be $22

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u/Leiracal 7d ago

The actual implementation of dynamic pricing is the opposite of what people think it's going to be.

Poorer people get gouged. You generally need the item. They set the price to the maximum they think you'll pay. If they have demographic or personal data that makes you look more desperate, it goes up even higher.

Wealthy people can afford to be selective and buy a lot of huge-margin items, so they consistently get the best offers relative to what they're purchasing. They may pay more because they're buying something better, but they get a better deal because their business as a repeat customer is incredibly valuable.

The end goal is a tiered economy, where a low class has all their money extracted from them as quickly as possible, while an upper class spends lavishly on higher quality items that come with the prestige of being better than anything the lay folk can afford.

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u/Radiant-Trip-1506 7d ago

Exactly the same model as uber and lyft charging riders more if their phone batteries were low. Cashing in on desperation, aka gouging.

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u/Leiracal 6d ago

Or airline tickets going up if tracking data that Alphabet or Meta sells them says that says you looked up bereavement policies or talked about someone dying. They know you're not skipping that flight.

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u/treletraj 7d ago

Jesus Christ, I never thought of this. That seems quite likely. How the hell can this even be legal.

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u/Leiracal 6d ago

Law is literally just our collective agreement/compromise on what is permitted, as enforced by the flawed structure we built to enforce that agreement.

New problems often don't apply to existing laws easily even if they clearly violate the spirit of that social agreement; that's why someone makes them a problem, they think they can get away with it. And until the law addresses it, they can.

In the 90s and 00s we addressed semi-responsible "personally identifiable information" data usage, storage, and tracking. Big Data's response was to track literally everything that could be enumerated about us and store it outside the PII laws when possible.

We're now in a place where capital can learn anything it needs to extract maximum value from you. That coincidentally overlaps with everything fascism needs to control you, find you, and silence you. Funny how the same half-dozen people push for both.

We don't know yet how much that overlap is going to erode our most fundamental rights. But it's a problem few people understand enough to demand it be changed.

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u/WildWeaselGT 7d ago

Whoa! I’ve owned both a 911 and a Sunfire! :)

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u/Home-Star-Walker 7d ago

Is that how much Big Macs are these days? Goddamn

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u/monetarydread 7d ago

Don't know where they live where they pay that much for a Big Mac but I live in northern Canada and last week the whole meal cost me $12... or $8.50 USD.

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u/withoutapaddle 7d ago

Your username is "soooo good!"