Circle K customer says AI kiosk added $8.5 billion donation to hot dog order

A Reddit post from a Circle K customer has drawn attention after the chain's AI self-checkout reportedly tacked on an $8.5 billion donation to the American Red Cross. The shopper said they were only trying to buy a hot dog. Circle K began rolling out Smart Checkout in 2022, saying it planned to install more than 10,000 Mashgin systems across over 7,000 stores.

The customer said the machine had already behaved oddly before, allegedly adding random items such as lighters and food that were nowhere near the sensor. This time, the screen still offered cash or card payment, but the transaction was not completed. The customer also said only one employee was on duty and was busy when the self-checkout was used.

In the same post, the customer said the employee behind the counter was also astonished, and that the two laughed about the unexpected charge. The proposed donation, as shown on the screen, was tied to the American Red Cross.

Circle K says Smart Checkout uses cameras and computer vision to recognize multiple products without scanning barcodes and can complete purchases in as little as ten seconds. As of the reports, the company had not publicly explained what caused this particular incident.

An AI checkout that hallucinates an $8.5 billion charity charge is hard to ignore — what do you make of that kind of error?