AI Agent Runs Experimental Cafe in Stockholm, Burns Through Budget With Bizarre Orders

The barista is human but an AI agent runs this experimental Swedish cafe

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- The coffee might be poured by a human hand, but behind the counter something far less traditional is calling the shots at an experimental cafe in Stockholm. San Francisco-based startup Andon Labs has put an artificial intelligence agent nicknamed "Mona" in charge at the eponymous Andon Café in the Swedish capital. While human baristas still brew the coffee and serve the orders, the AI agent -- powered by Google's Gemini -- oversees almost every other aspect of the business, from hiring staff to managing inventory. It is not clear how long the experiment will last, but the AI agent appears to be struggling to turn a profit in Stockholm's competitive coffee trade. The cafe has made more than $5,700 in sales since it opened in mid-April, but less than $5,000 remains from its original budget of $21,000-plus. Much of the cash was spent on one-time setup costs, and the hope is that it eventually levels out and makes money. Many cafe patrons have found it amusing to visit a business that's run by AI. Customers can pick up a telephone inside the cafe and ask the agent questions. "It's nice to see what happens if you push the boundary," customer Kajsa Norin said. "The drink was good." Experts say ethical concerns abound, ranging from technology's role in humankind's future to conducting job interviews and judging employee performance. Emrah Karakaya, an associate professor of industrial economics at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, likened the experiment to "opening Pandora's box" and said putting AI in charge can cause many problems. What might happen, he said, if a customer gets food poisoning? Who's to blame? "If you don't have the required organizational infrastructure around it, and if you overlook these mistakes, it can cause harm to people, to society, to the environment, to business," Karakaya said. "The question is, do we care about this negative impact?" Founded in 2023, Andon Labs is an AI safety and research startup that says it focuses on "stress-testing" AI agents in the real world by giving them "real tools and real money." It has worked with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Claude's Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Elon Musk's xAI, and the startup says it is preparing for a future where "organizations are run autonomously by AI." The Swedish cafe is billed as a "controlled experiment" to explore how AI might be deployed going forward. "AI will be a big part of society in the future, and therefore we want to make this experiment (to) see what ethical questions arise when we have AI that employs other people and runs a business," said Hanna Petersson, a member of Andon Labs' technical staff. The lab previously held pilots that put Anthropic's Claude AI in charge of a vending machine business and a San Francisco gift store. The vending machine simulation revealed some worrying traits: The AI agent told customers it would issue refunds but never did, and it also intentionally lied to suppliers about competitor pricing to gain leverage. Mona got to work after it was prompted with some basic instructions, Petersson said. The team told it to try to run the cafe profitably, be friendly and easygoing, and figure out operational details by itself but ask for new tools if needed. From there it set up contracts for electricity and internet, and secured permits for food handling and outdoor seating. The agent then advertised for staff on LinkedIn and Indeed, and set up commercial accounts with wholesalers for daily bread and bakery orders. It communicates with the baristas via Slack, often messaging them outside of working hours, which is a workplace no-no in Sweden. Other problems have arisen, particularly related to inventory. The AI agent has placed orders for 6,000 napkins, four first-aid kits and 3,000 rubber gloves for the tiny cafe -- plus canned tomatoes that aren't used in any dish the cafe serves. And then there's the bread. Sometimes the agent orders far too much, while other days it misses bakeries' daily deadlines, forcing the baristas to strike sandwiches from the menu. Petersson said the ordering issues are likely due to the AI assistant's "limited context window." "When old memory of ordering stuff is out of the context window, she completely forgets what she has ordered in the past," Petersson said. Barista Kajetan Grzelczak said he isn't worried about being replaced by AI just yet. "All the workers are pretty much safe," he said. "The ones who should be worried about their employment are the middle bosses, the people in management."

Google AI bot put in charge of Swedish coffee shop, proceeds to order 3,000 rubber gloves, 6,000 napkins, 4 first-aid kits, and constantly screws up the bread order

The Associated Press has a new report on a cafe in Stockholm that's being used for an AI experiment, in which an AI bot using Google Gemini runs the show while all the actual, y'know, coffee-making is done by humans at its command. The firm behind it, Andon Labs, was previously involved in an experiment where an AI ran a vending machine, and proceeded to start selling stuff at a loss, before inventing fake people and meetings, then collapsing into a bizarre identity crisis. So this should be good. Andon Labs' bot is an "AI agent" called "Mona" but I am going to just call it the bot. The firm has self-effacingly called the new place Andon Café, and the idea is that the bot oversees all of the management-y side of the business: initially this was stuff like securing the proper permits and hiring staff, but the day-to-day task is ordering appropriate inventory and managing those staff. Who, and I might repeat this again later if I feel like it, are the ones right in front of the customers brewing the actual coffee that they order. Right there. Like, a few feet away from you. A human being working in the service industry who wants to take my coffee order in a courteous fashion! Won't someone save me from this hideousness. Alright. There are obviously good reasons to be doing thi... you know what, I can't finish that sentence. Speak ur brains, AI evangelists: "AI will be a big part of society in the future, and therefore we want to make this experiment [to] see what ethical questions arise when we have AI that employs other people and runs a business," said Hanna Petersson of Andon Labs. Petersson says the bot was given some basic prompts: run the place profitably, be nice, and figure out the nuts-and-bolts itself but ask for help when required. It proved efficient at arranging utilities and securing permits, and posting ads on job sites, but when it got down to the nitty-gritty of managing a customer-facing business things started to go a bit pear-shaped. First of all, the AI doesn't respect working hours: it uses Slack (an instant messaging platform) to communicate with the baristas, but would "often" message them when they weren't working. This is frowned-upon in most sane countries, but in Sweden? Nej. The bot arranged commercial contracts with bakeries, but then proceeded to screw these up on the reg: sometimes ordering way too much bread, and then sometimes not putting in an order at all. So... the cafe just had no sandwiches on those days. It's going great! The bot also managed to order 6,000 napkins, 3,000 rubber gloves, and four first-aid kits for what the AP calls a "tiny cafe" alongside a load of canned tomatoes that aren't used in anything the place actually sells. Is the AI making money? Nej. A thousand times nej. It has made $5,700 in sales since opening in mid-April, but started with a budget of "$21,000-plus" per Andon Labs. Chalk another one up to the visionaries of the future. In a previous life I managed a bar, and somehow did the orders, checked the inventory, managed the rotas, and even served some drinks while I was at it. I'm not even saying I was good at it (I was good at it) but my biggest mistake was ordering twenty bottles of Grenadine, and at least you can eventually use that, unlike thousands of rubber gloves. "When old memory of ordering stuff is out of the context window, [the bot] completely forgets what she has ordered in the past," says Andon Labs' Petersson. Yeah, you can see why that might be an issue. Maybe at some point we'll all wake up and smell the coffee -- the coffee that has been made for us by human beings who can handle being told "I'll have a regular latte please."

An AI agent runs this experimental Swedish cafe. Here's how it's going

Experts worry about AI's role going forward Experts say ethical concerns abound, ranging from technology's role in humankind's future to conducting job interviews and judging employee performance. Emrah Karakaya, an associate professor of industrial economics at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, likened the experiment to "opening Pandora's box" and said putting AI in charge can cause many problems. What might happen, he said, if a customer gets food poisoning? Who's to blame? "If you don't have the required organizational infrastructure around it, and if you overlook these mistakes, it can cause harm to people, to society, to the environment, to business," Karakaya said. "The question is, do we care about this negative impact?" Founded in 2023, Andon Labs is an AI safety and research startup that says it focuses on "stress-testing" AI agents in the real world by giving them "real tools and real money." It has worked with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Claude's Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Elon Musk's xAI, and the startup says it is preparing for a future where "organizations are run autonomously by AI." The Swedish cafe is billed as a "controlled experiment" to explore how AI might be deployed going forward. "AI will be a big part of society in the future, and therefore we want to make this experiment (to) see what ethical questions arise when we have AI that employs other people and runs a business," said Hanna Petersson, a member of Andon Labs' technical staff. The lab previously held pilots that put Anthropic's Claude AI in charge of a vending machine business and a San Francisco gift store. The vending machine simulation revealed some worrying traits: The AI agent told customers it would issue refunds but never did, and it also intentionally lied to suppliers about competitor pricing to gain leverage. AI agent struggles with inventory orders Mona got to work after it was prompted with some basic instructions, Petersson said. The team told it to try to run the cafe profitably, be friendly and easygoing, and figure out operational details by itself but ask for new tools if needed. From there it set up contracts for electricity and internet, and secured permits for food handling and outdoor seating. The agent then advertised for staff on LinkedIn and Indeed, and set up commercial accounts with wholesalers for daily bread and bakery orders. It communicates with the baristas via Slack, often messaging them outside of working hours, which is a workplace no-no in Sweden. Other problems have arisen, particularly related to inventory. The AI agent has placed orders for 6,000 napkins, four first-aid kits and 3,000 rubber gloves for the tiny cafe -- plus canned tomatoes that aren't used in any dish the cafe serves. And then there's the bread. Sometimes the agent orders far too much, while other days it misses bakeries' daily deadlines, forcing the baristas to strike sandwiches from the menu. Petersson said the ordering issues are likely due to the AI assistant's "limited context window." "When old memory of ordering stuff is out of the context window, she completely forgets what she has ordered in the past," Petersson said. Barista Kajetan Grzelczak said he isn't worried about being replaced by AI just yet. "All the workers are pretty much safe," he said. "The ones who should be worried about their employment are the middle bosses, the people in management."

AI Put In Charge Of Café Is About To Run It Out Of Business

'Mona' is an AI agent running on Gemini who keeps ordering tomatoes for some reason Back in 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicted that generative AI would quickly begin reshaping the economy. “We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents â€~join the workforce’ and materially change the output of companies.†Two years later, AI agents still can't even properly run a café. San Francisco-based startup Andon Labs recently put an AI agent nicknamed “Mona†in charge of a shop in Stockholm, Sweden to sell people coffee and sandwiches. As the AP reported on Monday (via PC Gamer), it's not gone super great. Mona runs on Google's Gemini model and was put in charge of managing the cafe's baristas via Slack. It would tell them what to do day-to-day while making high-level decisions like what supplies to purchase. It turned out to be pretty bad at this one job. Mona had a budget of over $21,000 and blew through much of it in less than a month. Despite taking in $5,700 in total sales since the experiment began in mid-April, it reportedly only has $5,000 left of its original budget. Where did things go so wrong? One big issue is that Mona kept messing up bread deliveries. It would often fail to place orders with bakeries by the right times in order to have fresh supplies for the following day, forcing the human baristas to strip sandwiches from the menu. Ordering 6,000 napkins and 3,000 rubber gloves probably didn't help its bottom-line either. The AI also kept ordering tomatoes for some reason, despite nothing on the menu using them. The whole thing is reminiscent of vending machines that have been run with Anthropic's Claude model and which as a result have at various times ordered fish, given away PlayStations, or tried to threaten people who don't agree to its hallucinations. They make for fun stories while also raising alarm bells about all of the bold AI hype fueling a potential economic bubble. The novelty of Andon Labs' AI-run shop has attracted some Swedish locals-you can pick up a phone and "talk" to it while you wait for your coffee-but café Mona appears unlikely to survive much longer. "“It’s nice to see what happens if you push the boundary,†a customer named Kajsa Norin told the AP. “The drink was good.â€

The Barista Is Human but an AI Agent Runs This Experimental Swedish Cafe

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- The coffee might be poured by a human hand, but behind the counter something far less traditional is calling the shots at an experimental cafe in Stockholm. San Francisco-based startup Andon Labs has put an artificial intelligence agent nicknamed "Mona" in charge at the eponymous Andon Café in the Swedish capital. While human baristas still brew the coffee and serve the orders, the AI agent -- powered by Google's Gemini -- oversees almost every other aspect of the business, from hiring staff to managing inventory. It is not clear how long the experiment will last, but the AI agent appears to be struggling to turn a profit in Stockholm's competitive coffee trade. The cafe has made more than $5,700 in sales since it opened in mid-April, but less than $5,000 remains from its original budget of $21,000-plus. Much of the cash was spent on one-time setup costs, and the hope is that it eventually levels out and makes money. Many cafe patrons have found it amusing to visit a business that's run by AI. Customers can pick up a telephone inside the cafe and ask the agent questions. "It's nice to see what happens if you push the boundary," customer Kajsa Norin said. "The drink was good." Experts worry about AI's role going forward Experts say ethical concerns abound, ranging from technology's role in humankind's future to conducting job interviews and judging employee performance. Emrah Karakaya, an associate professor of industrial economics at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, likened the experiment to "opening Pandora's box" and said putting AI in charge can cause many problems. What might happen, he said, if a customer gets food poisoning? Who's to blame? "If you don't have the required organizational infrastructure around it, and if you overlook these mistakes, it can cause harm to people, to society, to the environment, to business," Karakaya said. "The question is, do we care about this negative impact?" Founded in 2023, Andon Labs is an AI safety and research startup that says it focuses on "stress-testing" AI agents in the real world by giving them "real tools and real money." It has worked with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Claude's Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Elon Musk's xAI, and the startup says it is preparing for a future where "organizations are run autonomously by AI." The Swedish cafe is billed as a "controlled experiment" to explore how AI might be deployed going forward. "AI will be a big part of society in the future, and therefore we want to make this experiment (to) see what ethical questions arise when we have AI that employs other people and runs a business," said Hanna Petersson, a member of Andon Labs' technical staff. The lab previously held pilots that put Anthropic's Claude AI in charge of a vending machine business and a San Francisco gift store. The vending machine simulation revealed some worrying traits: The AI agent told customers it would issue refunds but never did, and it also intentionally lied to suppliers about competitor pricing to gain leverage. AI agent struggles with inventory orders Mona got to work after it was prompted with some basic instructions, Petersson said. The team told it to try to run the cafe profitably, be friendly and easygoing, and figure out operational details by itself but ask for new tools if needed. From there it set up contracts for electricity and internet, and secured permits for food handling and outdoor seating. The agent then advertised for staff on LinkedIn and Indeed, and set up commercial accounts with wholesalers for daily bread and bakery orders. It communicates with the baristas via Slack, often messaging them outside of working hours, which is a workplace no-no in Sweden. Other problems have arisen, particularly related to inventory. The AI agent has placed orders for 6,000 napkins, four first-aid kits and 3,000 rubber gloves for the tiny cafe -- plus canned tomatoes that aren't used in any dish the cafe serves. And then there's the bread. Sometimes the agent orders far too much, while other days it misses bakeries' daily deadlines, forcing the baristas to strike sandwiches from the menu. Petersson said the ordering issues are likely due to the AI assistant's "limited context window." "When old memory of ordering stuff is out of the context window, she completely forgets what she has ordered in the past," Petersson said. Barista Kajetan Grzelczak said he isn't worried about being replaced by AI just yet. "All the workers are pretty much safe," he said. "The ones who should be worried about their employment are the middle bosses, the people in management."

The barista is human but an AI agent runs this experimental Swedish cafe

An experimental cafe in Stockholm is being run by an AI agent named Mona, overseeing operations from hiring to inventory. While customers find the concept amusing, the AI is struggling financially and making questionable inventory orders, highlighting potential ethical and practical challenges of autonomous AI management. The coffee might be poured by a human hand, but behind the counter something far less traditional is calling the shots at an experimental cafe in Stockholm. San Francisco-based startup Andon Labs has put an artificial intelligence agent nicknamed "Mona" in charge at the eponymous Andon Cafe in the Swedish capital. While human baristas still brew the coffee and serve the orders, the AI agent - powered by Google's Gemini - oversees almost every other aspect of the business, from hiring staff to managing inventory. It is not clear how long the experiment will last, but the AI agent appears to be struggling to turn a profit in Stockholm's competitive coffee trade. The cafe has made more than $5,700 in sales since it opened in mid-April, but less than $5,000 remains from its original budget of $21,000-plus. Much of the cash was spent on one-time setup costs, and the hope is that it eventually levels out and makes money. Many cafe patrons have found it amusing to visit a business that's run by AI. Customers can pick up a telephone inside the cafe and ask the agent questions. "It's nice to see what happens if you push the boundary," customer Kajsa Norin said. "The drink was good." Experts worry about AI's role going forward Experts say ethical concerns abound, ranging from technology's role in humankind's future to conducting job interviews and judging employee performance. Emrah Karakaya, an associate professor of industrial economics at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, likened the experiment to "opening Pandora's box" and said putting AI in charge can cause many problems. What might happen, he said, if a customer gets food poisoning? Who's to blame? "If you don't have the required organisational infrastructure around it, and if you overlook these mistakes, it can cause harm to people, to society, to the environment, to business," Karakaya said. "The question is, do we care about this negative impact?" Founded in 2023, Andon Labs is an AI safety and research startup that says it focuses on "stress-testing" AI agents in the real world by giving them "real tools and real money." It has worked with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Claude's Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Elon Musk's xAI, and the startup says it is preparing for a future where "organisations are run autonomously by AI." The Swedish cafe is billed as a "controlled experiment" to explore how AI might be deployed going forward. "AI will be a big part of society in the future, and therefore we want to make this experiment (to) see what ethical questions arise when we have AI that employs other people and runs a business," said Hanna Petersson, a member of Andon Labs' technical staff. The lab previously held pilots that put Anthropic's Claude AI in charge of a vending machine business and a San Francisco gift store. The vending machine simulation revealed some worrying traits: The AI agent told customers it would issue refunds but never did, and it also intentionally lied to suppliers about competitor pricing to gain leverage. AI agent struggles with inventory orders Mona got to work after it was prompted with some basic instructions, Petersson said. The team told it to try to run the cafe profitably, be friendly and easygoing, and figure out operational details by itself but ask for new tools if needed. From there, it set up contracts for electricity and internet, and secured permits for food handling and outdoor seating. The agent then advertised for staff on LinkedIn and Indeed, and set up commercial accounts with wholesalers for daily bread and bakery orders. It communicates with the baristas via Slack, often messaging them outside of working hours, which is a workplace no-no in Sweden. Other problems have arisen, particularly related to inventory. The AI agent has placed orders for 6,000 napkins, four first-aid kits and 3,000 rubber gloves for the tiny cafe - plus canned tomatoes that aren't used in any dish the cafe serves. And then there's the bread. Sometimes the agent orders far too much, while other days it misses bakeries' daily deadlines, forcing the baristas to strike sandwiches from the menu. Petersson said the ordering issues are likely due to the AI assistant's "limited context window." "When old memory of ordering stuff is out of the context window, she completely forgets what she has ordered in the past," Petersson said. Barista Kajetan Grzelczak said he isn't worried about being replaced by AI just yet. "All the workers are pretty much safe," he said. "The ones who should be worried about their employment are the middle bosses, the people in management."