Taco Bell is rethinking its AI drive-thrus amid glitches and trolls ordering 18,000 water cups

18,000 water cups, please

Yum! Brands is rethinking its rollout of AI drive-thru technology, according to The Wall Street Journal. Customers, frustrated by the tech’s glitchy behavior and quick but wrong performance, have taken to trolling the AI by placing ridiculous orders (see: “can I get 18,000 water cups, please?”).

Taco Bell Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dane Mathews told the WSJ that the chain is now thinking carefully about how to use the tech — which it’s already put in more than 500 US restaurants — going forward.

We’re not expecting too big of a pullback: earlier this year, Taco Bell partnered with Nvidia and said it’s invested $1 billion into “digital and technology.”

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Netflix climbs ahead of “Stranger Things” streaming premiere amid reports it is ramping up its efforts to acquire WBD

The final season of Netflix’s tentpole franchise “Stranger Things” debuts on the streamer at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and its stock appears to be safely out of the upside down.

Netflix is trading up about 2% on Wednesday, on pace for one of its better days in the past three months. The stock has closed up more than 3% only a dozen times this year.

Potentially boosting investor optimism is a New York Post report from Tuesday evening that the streamer has ramped up its efforts to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. According to the Post, Netflix has made a case to the WBD board that antitrust concerns may not be warranted because Netflix competes not just with other streaming companies but with a larger pool of content providers, such as YouTube and TikTok. If Netflix’s legal team is right, the idea could pave the way for the world’s largest streamer by subscriber count to buy the fourth-largest.

At least one major Hollywood player is rooting against the company in the WBD bidding war. “Titanic” and “Avatar” director James Cameron this week said that Netflix acquiring WBD “would be a disaster.”

Morgan Stanley analysts have also argued that Netflix’s pursuit of these studio and streaming assets was creating headaches for its investors.

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