McDonald’s is removing its artificial intelligence (AI) ordering technology from its US restaurants after customers shared its comic mishaps online.

A trial period for the system, which was developed by IBM and uses voice recognition software to process orders, was announced in 2019.

However, it hasn’t proven to be entirely reliable, resulting in viral videos of strange misinterpreted orders ranging from bacon ice cream to hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets.

McDonald’s has told franchisees it will remove the technology from more than 100 restaurants where it is testing it by the end of July, as first reported by a publication in Restaurant Business.

“After careful consideration, McDonald’s has decided to end its current global partnership with IBM for ALT [Αυτόματη λήψη παραγγελιών] beyond this year,” the restaurant chain said in a statement.

However, she added that she remains convinced that technology will still be “part of the future of her restaurants.”

“We will continue to evaluate solutions to help us make an informed decision about a future voice ordering solution through the end of the year,” the company’s statement said.

The technology has been controversial from the start, though initially concerns centered on its potential to make jobs once performed by humans seem obsolete.

However, it has become apparent that replacing restaurant workers may not be as simple as people first feared and proponents of the system hoped.

The internet is filled with videos of funny ordering incidents

In a video, which has 30,000 views on TikTok, a young woman grows increasingly exasperated as she tries to convince the AI ​​that she wants a caramel ice cream, only to have several stacks of butter added to her order.

In another, which has 360,000 views, a person claims her order was mistaken for someone else’s, resulting in nine tea orders being added to her account.

A popular video features two people laughing as hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets are added to their order, while the New York Post reported that the AI ​​put bacon on a customer’s ice cream by mistake.

However, the end of this trial does not mean an end to concerns about AI reshaping the workplace.

IBM said it will continue to work with McDonald’s in the future.

“This technology has proven to have some of the most comprehensive capabilities in the industry, is fast and accurate in some of the most demanding conditions,” it said in a statement.

“As McDonald’s reevaluates and refines its plans for Automated Ordering, we look forward to continuing to work with them on many more projects.”