What happens when AI runs a store

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[upbeat music] Will your future boss be a clanker?

I don't know what it means. I'm, I'm not Native American, sorry.

Oh, wow.

Impossible. So you don't spend much time on TikTok then, do you, my friend?

This week we've got Lukas Pedersen, the co-founder of Andon Labs, a company testing the limits of AI by having it operate in the real world. The people's instincts when they're checking out with an AI is to barter. Why do you think that is?

I think we have, like, some filters when we're talking with humans that we don't have with, with AIs. Like, imagine going to the cashier at the store and like, "What if I robbed you? What would you do?"

Andon got its start with a viral vending machine run by AI at Anthropic HQ. Now, it's actually opening stores and cafes entirely managed by AI.

We also talk about why he's so convinced that people are going to be working for AIs sooner than you probably think. Do you really believe that, that all software is gonna be abstracted away by next year?

Uh, it's 2026 now. Yeah, right.

[laughs]

Uh, yes. Uh, the answer is yes, I still stand by it.

Welcome to Access, where the people shaping tech's future say what they really think.

I'm Alex Heath.

And I'm Ellis Hamburger.

Let's get into it.

[upbeat music] Okay, welcome to the show. I have a good segue here, Lukas, which is that I know you see society changing completely as a result of AGI in a couple years, but we're still figuring out Wi-Fi connectivity issues and audio connectivity issues for our podcast. How can those both be true at the same time? [laughs]

Yeah, so there's, there's a couple... I have a, I have a, a very serious answer to this. There's a couple of technologies like nuclear fusion, quantum computing, uh, Wi-Fi, stuff like this, that are, like, far bigger projects than, than AGI. So once AGI comes, then they will be solved, so you don't have to worry. Like, five years maybe, then, then quantum computing and, and Wi-Fi will be solved.

Yeah, I think, uh, Wi-Fi has been one of the primary antagonists of my entire life. Uh, I feel like I've been the family Wi-Fi router guy doing 192.168.1.1 to solve