AIFoPa-2024-0002 — McDonald's AI Drive-Thru Adds 260 Chicken McNuggets to Customer Order; McDonald's Ends AI Partnership

A customer at a McDonald's drive-thru, equipped with an IBM AI ordering system, attempted to order something. The AI added 260 Chicken McNuggets to the order. The customer attempted to remove the McNuggets. The AI confirmed the removal and added more McNuggets. This exchange continued for approximately nine iterations before a human employee intervened.

The incident was documented on TikTok, where it attracted significant attention. McDonald's had been piloting IBM's AI ordering technology at over 100 locations for approximately two years. In June 2024, an internal McDonald's memo obtained by Restaurant Business announced that the partnership would end and all AI ordering systems would be removed by July 26, 2024.

The memo cited the end of a "test period." It did not specifically mention the 260 McNuggets. The Bureau considers this a notable omission in an otherwise comprehensive communication.

The system's behavior was consistent with a failure mode the Bureau classifies as Unbounded Iterative Fulfillment: the AI interpreted each "remove the McNuggets" instruction as the completion of one action, followed by re-engagement with the order, at which point it fulfilled what it understood to be the customer's standing preferences. It did not model the possibility that "please stop" was not a request for a revised order.