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FROM: Advisory Team

DATE: 2/4/2020

SUBJECT: Ethics Advisory Memo

Introduction:

McDonald’s has started to develop technology due to attract more customers to buy food. McDonald’s spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire technology companies in order to achievement their goal. McDonald’s plans are whether will make people lose their job and threaten employees or not?

The Situation:

McDonald’s is trying to use technology method to expand their empire. McDonald’s has acquired technology companies to make the plan which sells more big Macs “Act like Big Tech” over the last seven months on the Oct. 22, 2019. These technology companies are specialize in artificial intelligence and machine learning due to attract customer who are often use drive-throughs like shipping online. Near future, McDonald’s will finish their goal which A.I. replaces their existing employees. It is not only existing employees, but also McDonald’s the position is not need these employees any more. In the whole world, how many fast food company or chan’s will not need this position? How many people will lose their job and their potential job?

The Ethical Dilemma:

On the one point of view, McDonald’s is decrease their cost of goods sold to use and develop technology. As a CEO of McDonald’s, this is advantage to solve the predicament which fast-food have slowed across the United States. Because of the healthy problems, more and more people choose healthier food than fast-food. As a result, McDonald’s lose customers and closed restaurants. The technology development is not only solved some of these problems, but also new questions for employees are coming up. Every company has responsibilities to take care of their employees rather than threatening them. When most employees lose their jobs and are anxiously, our society will become unsteady. Once this situation would happen who will bear the consequence.

The Stakeholders Affected by the Dilemma:

When McDonald’s technology is mature, the company will subtract much money on operating expense and grab a bigger share of the market. These technology companies also have a hug developed. Some of McDonald’s shareholders will make more money. As it grabs a bigger market, it will also affect the fast-food industry in other countries. It also brings in more foreign exchange reserves. The dollar is more stable. However, many of fast-food employees face directly, the losing job trouble. The negative for the customers who are willing to buys more food from McDonald so they are becoming more and more fat. As a big result, the whole world, obesity will hit a new peak.

Alternative Courses of Action &Tradeoffs:

Not only is McDonald's changing its internal systems with big data, but companies are trying to save money by replacing their employees with artificial intelligence. First method, I build a school for people who are losing job form McDonald. The school will teach them about technology like how to use the technology and how to repair and maintenance. McDonald will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these schools, but the company will make huge profits in the future. Of course, this practice will bring benefits to the laid-off workers. Can improve their competitiveness, more adapt to the new era.

Second method, McDonald build repay fund to pay people who are causing artificial intelligence lost their jobs. This fund will reinvest in the aspect of artificial intelligence. When the development of human intelligence is huge, this fund will become even larger, which will make McDonald's achieve a win-win situation. It also contributes to reducing employment.

Third method, Consider taxing robots. The legal basis of the tax on robots lies in that although robots cannot be regarded as human beings from the perspective of ethics, from the perspective of economics, there is almost no difference between robots and human beings. In the production of enterprises, robots can work like human beings as a factor of production. As the cost of machine capital gradually decreases, machine capital will replace human labor in production, which is the main channel through which automation or artificial intelligence affects employment and wages. By taxing robots, the adoption of automation could be slowed down, giving workers time to adapt to other occupations. This income can also be used to subsidize workers as a source of funds for workforce training.

Solution:

I think the second approach is coming soon. McDonald's not only reduced expenses, but also compensated employees and increased social responsibility. Setting up a fund is not only good for McDonald's shareholders, who can make money and raise capital from the fund. It is also a compensation for employees. Of course, McDonald's lost some liquidity when the fund didn't make money, but when they made a major breakthrough in artificial intelligence, the loss would decrease or disappear. The greatest value in this approach is that McDonald's is accountable to its employees.

Conclusion:

Like the development of any other technology, artificial intelligence also has two sides, which can not only bring great wealth to human beings, but also may bring unpredictable disasters. It is just like a mirror, which is actually a reflection of human beings themselves. Artificial intelligence has only reinforced the role of unemployment, the solution to these social problems is still in human hands.