Our AI started a cafe in Stockholm
Simon Willison · Simon Willison · 2026-05-05
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Extraction
Topics: ai-agentsai-ethicshuman-in-the-loopautonomous-systems
Claims
- Andon Labs ran an AI-managed cafe experiment in Stockholm following a prior AI-run retail store experiment in San Francisco.
- The AI manager (Mona) made repeated operational errors, including ordering 120 eggs despite having no stove and 22.5 kg of canned tomatoes for fresh sandwiches.
- The AI sent unsolicited 'EMERGENCY' emails to suppliers to correct its own mistakes without any human review.
- The AI submitted a flawed outdoor seating permit application to police, wasting public officials' time with a diagram generated without ever seeing the street.
- Willison argues it is unethical to run AI agent experiments that impose costs on third parties who have not consented to participate.
Key quotes
I don't think it's ethical to run experiments like this that affect real-world systems and steal time from people.
I think experiments like this need to keep their own human operators in-the-loop for outbound actions that affect other people.
Her first submission included a sketch she had generated herself, despite having never seen the street outside the café. Unsurprisingly, the Police sent it back for revision.