Could Facial Recognition Technology Change the Way We Order in Restaurants?

Do you struggle with the basic task of ordering in restaurants? Do you sometimes wish there was some kind of elaborate computer program that could just decide on a menu item for you? If your answer to both those questions is "yes", then consider paying a visit to a KFC in Beijing's financial district, where facial recognition technology is being used to pick meals for customers based on their age, gender and mood.

According to a press release put out by Chinese tech giant Baidu, who collaborated with Colonel Sanders on the technology, customers stand in front of a machine which scans their face and then makes recommendations as to what they might like to order. For example, a male in his 20s would likely be recommended "a set meal of crispy chicken hamburger, roasted chicken wings and Coke," while a woman in her fifties would be encouraged to purchase "porridge and soybean milk."

Already, this jumps out as pretty sexist/ageist — after all, who is this robot to say that I, a male in his 20s, wouldn't also like to order a delicious bowl of KFC porridge? Mmm... appetising.

Perhaps more promising is the fact that the machine can recall the faces of returning customers, along with their favourite menu items. That's the theory at least, although it didn't remember Amy Hawkins, a reporter for The Guardian who tried the machine twice but failed to leave an impression.

Hawkins also noted that a vast majority of people in the Beijing restaurant seemed to prefer ordering the old-fashioned way. According to one customer she spoke to, "if it knows in future what I want to eat that's great, but at the moment it's not very smart."

Perhaps they're scared off by privacy concerns? Personally, I don't know that I want there to be a digital paper trail of how frequently I visit KFC, or how much I order when I do (spoiler: it's a lot).

Nevertheless, KFC is reportedly planning to roll out the technology to 5000 stores across China. It's a brave new world we're living in folks. A brave, greasy new world.