Vending machines are getting smarter with machine learning and facial recognition

From smartphones to drones, the evidence is in our pockets, in the sky, at the office, and in the streets. The pace of technological evolution, though, can be even harder to keep up with than the Kardashians. When asked to think about cutting-edge tech, I'll be the first to admit that vending machines aren't the first innovation to come to mind. However, the technology behind today's most advanced vending machines is some of the most disruptive in the book. Like today's smartphones, which barely resemble the clunky, tethered machines of yesteryear, vending machines have undergone massive upgrades since holy water dispensing in the first century and their official debut in the 1880s.