'Eat the future, pay with your face': my dystopian trip to an AI burger joint

On 1 April, the same day California's new 20 hourly minimum wage for fast food workers went into effect, a new restaurant opened in north-east Los Angeles that was conspicuously light on human staff. CaliExpress by Flippy claims to be the world's first fully autonomous restaurant, using a system of AI-powered robots to churn out fast food burgers and fries. A small number of humans are still required to push the buttons on the machines and assemble the burgers and toppings, but the companies involved tout that using their technology could cut labor costs, perhaps dramatically. "Eat the future," they offer. I visited CaliExpress last week to find out what an all-American lunch served with a side of existential dread tastes like.