Marketing stunt. If they actually cared about this as an experiment, they wouldn't have broadcasted this so early, because now that the public knows that the store is designed and run by AI, many people aren't going to support it (i.e. many people who would have shopped there now won't).

Also don't do it in San Francisco, I think it's an artificial easier market. The type of store wouldn't work in Bumsville Idaho.

Maybe that's for later, if this works out, but I'd love to see the AI attempt to run a moderately successful business in a borderline dysfunctional town in the Midwest. If you don't technically need to pay "the CEO" a salary, could you run e.g. a grocery store in a dying town. One this would really test the AI on creativity, and it would perhaps tell us if these towns are just doomed.

interesting take. looks like they've already got a bunch of hate on google reviews already.

But maybe people will forget eventually.

Or they would go there mainly out of curiosity. Either way, it is skewed by the sole fact that they published it.

I hope they also have similar store that they don't talk about publicly, so they can compare the outcomes.