Pizza Hut is introducing a new robotic cashier to its restaurants in the Asia-Pacific region, which wouldn't really be that interesting except that this robot can apparently read peoples' emotions and respond accordingly. The robot, called Pepper, was developed by Softbank and it can, according to the MasterCard (who are also involved) VP, it can "[get] a sense of whether the consumer is happy or sad. That can help to make it engaging. Pepper would potentially adjust the ordering process for a customer who is happy or existed [sic?]. Pepper could potentially make some jokes, etc. It actually responds to how the consumer is feeling. It’s almost like digital empathy." So, yeah, we're sure that when somebody is sadly ordering food in a Pizza Hut, the main thing they need is a robot to be cracking jokes at them.
• Pepper the robot’s next job is Pizza Hut cashier [Tech Crunch, via AV Club]