Restaurants are now employing robots-should chefs be worried餐厅如今正在使用机器人—厨师们应该感到担忧吗？（中）The technology exists, it just needs knitting together cost-effectively and in a way diners buy into. In an industry keen to slash labour costs and increase profits, futher automation seems inevitable.技术已经存在，只是需要以一种成本效益高且食客能接受的方式整合起来。在一个急于削减劳动力成本、增加利润的行业里，进一步自动化似乎不可避免。After an eight-month test at Kang Nam Tofu House in California, Bear Robotics credited Penny with driving a 28% increase in sales. Meanwhile, in US trials, the self-ordering screens that McDonald's is currently installing at its 1,300 UK retaurants yielded a rise in order values.在加利福利亚州的江南豆腐进行了为期个月的测试后，贝尔机器人公司认为“佩妮”使销售额提升了28%。与此同时，在美国的测试中，麦当劳目前正在其1300家英国餐厅安装的自助点餐屏幕使订单金额有所提高。Personalisation is seen as key to the appeal of this technology, alongside its ability to reliably push so-called "upsells"(meal deals, extras, large drinks) to customers. Soon when you log into a restaurant app, it will be able to use your data and purchasing history to recommend dished to you—factoring in everything from the weather to, if you are ordering at a screen that can read your face, your mood.个性化被视为这项技术吸引力的关键所在，与此同时，它还能够稳定地向顾客推销所谓的 “追加销售商品”（套餐、额外菜品、大杯饮料）。很快，当你登录餐厅应用程序时，它就能利用你的数据和购买历史为你推荐菜品，将从天气，到如果你是在能识别人脸的屏幕上点餐时的你的情绪等所有因素都考虑在内。“Right now people compromise on choice. We're presented with a one-size-fits menu. Ultimately, technology can allow us to make personal choices. You love spicy food and chiken? Here's the dish people like you mostly order,” says Tom Weaver, CEO at the hospitality tech company Flyt. He talks enthusiastically about the Helsinki pop-up Take-In, a full-service restaurant where diners ordered dishes in from various delivery services."For the first time in a few hundred years, digital is allowing us to create new versions of restaurants."“如今人们在选择上有所妥协。我们看到的是一种一刀切的菜单。从根本上来说，技术能让我们做出个性化的选择。你喜欢辣的食物和鸡肉？这有像你这样的人最常点的菜。” 酒店科技公司 Flyt 的首席执行官汤姆・韦弗说道。他热情地谈到了赫尔辛基的快闪餐厅 Take - In，这是一家提供全方位服务的餐厅，用餐者可以从各种外卖服务中点菜。“几百年来头一次，数字化让我们能够创造出新型的餐厅。”If high-street fast is automation-ready, its impact on high-end retaurants is likely to be subtler and slower."It'll probably be a very long time before we see a five-start robot-chef," says Noel Sharkey, professor of AI and robotics at the University of Sheffield."Apart from AI creativity gap, great cooking involves a subtle understanding of ingredients and delicate cooking that would be enormously challenging for robots. Placing fragile foods on plates would be incredibly slow."如果说商业街的快餐店已做好自动化准备，那么自动化对高端餐厅的影响可能更微妙、更缓慢。谢菲尔德大学人工智能与机器人学教授诺埃尔・夏基表示：“我们很可能要过很长时间才会看到五星级的机器人厨师。除了人工智能存在创造力方面的差距，出色的烹饪需要对食材有细致的理解以及精湛的厨艺，这对机器人来说极具挑战性。把易碎的食物装盘会极其缓慢。”Currently, robots have limited functionality. A human needs to load Penny with plates that diners lift off themselves. At the robot-powered US pizza-delivery company Zume,the more difficult jobs, such as topping pizzas,are still done by humans.
But Moley, which will launch soon, offers an idea of the sophistication to come. Modelled on the movements of a MasterChef contest winner, Tim Anderson, its robotic arms are fixed over a stove and programmed to prepare dishes from raw ingredients. It is designed for domestic use, but a commercial version is planned that opens up the possibility of restaurant kitchens automating even highly technically challenging tasks.但即将推出的莫利（Moley）机器人，让我们得以一窥未来的复杂精妙程度。它的机械臂模仿《厨艺大师》（MasterChef）比赛冠军蒂姆・安德森（Tim Anderson）的动作，固定在炉灶上方，并通过编程能用原材料烹制菜肴。它原本是为家庭使用而设计，但已计划推出商用版本，这就使得餐厅厨房即使是高度技术挑战的任务也实现自动化成为可能。重点词汇和短语：exist: v.存在；实际上有；生存knit: v.编织；（使）紧密结合：（使）严密cost-effectively: adv.成本效益高地，划算地diner: n.用餐者；食客buy into: 动词短语，接受；买入；入股keen: adj.渴望；热衷于；敏锐地slash: v.大幅度削减；砍；劈；n.斜线；砍痕labour: n.劳动；劳动力；工作；动词，劳动；苦干inevitable: adj.不可避免地；必然发生的knit together: 结合；使紧密相连be keen to do sth: 热衷于做某事，渴望做某事credit：v.把......归功于；相信；认为有（良好地品质或特点）；n.信用；信贷；赞扬yield: v.产生（收益、效益等）；屈服；让步；n.产量；产出credit sb. with sth: 把某事归功于某人self-ordering screents: 自助点餐屏幕personalisation: n.个性化appeal: n.吸引力；呼吁；上诉；v.吸引；呼吁；上述alongside: prep.与......一起；在......旁边；adv.在旁边reliably: adv.可靠地；确实地push: v.推销；推动；逼迫；n.推；奋力；推销活动upsell: n.追加销售；向上销售；v.向（顾客）推销更昂贵地产品（或服务）log into: 动词短语，登录data: n.数据；资料；材料purchasing: n.购买，采购；v.purchase的现在分词形式，意为购买recommend :n.菜肴；碟；盘；v.盛于碟盘中；分发factor in: 动词短语，将......考虑在内be seen as：被视为key to: ......的关键compromise: v.妥协；让步；损害；n. 妥协；折中方案presented: v.present的过去分词，这里意为“被展示”；呈现；赠送；介绍one-size-fits-all: adj.一刀切的；通用的ultimately: adv.最终；根本上；基本上technology: n.技术；工艺；科技spicy: adj.辛辣的；加有香料的；刺激的hospitality: n.酒店业；好客；殷勤enthusiastically: adv. 热情地；热心地pop-up: n.快闪店；adj.突然出现地full-service: adj.提供全方位服务的digital: adj.数字的；数码的；数字化的；n.数字电视compromise on: 在......上妥协be presented with: 被给予；被展示tallk about: 谈论；谈到high-street: n.商业街（尤指城镇主要街道，两旁多为商店）automation-ready: adj.做好自动化准备的impact: n.影响；撞击；冲击力；v.对......产生影响；撞击high-end: adj.高端的；高档的subtler: subtle的比较级，subtle adj.微妙的；不易察觉的；机智的apart from: 短语，除......之外（还);除......之外（别无）creativity: n.创造力；创造性gap: n.差距；缺口；隔阂ingredient: n.原料；要素；（构成）成分delicate: adj.精湛的；微妙的；精美的；易碎的enormously: adv.极其；非常challenging: adj.具有挑战性的；考验能力的fragile: adj.易碎的；脆弱的；精细的be ready for: 为.....做好准备apart from:除.....之外currently: adv.目前；当下；时下functionality: n.功能；机能load: v.装载；加载；使负担；n.负载；负荷；大量lift off: 动词短语，取走；（飞机、火箭等）起飞powered: adj.由......驱动的；以......为动力的topping: n.浇头load...with....:用......装载......;使......负担......launch: v.推出；发射；发起；使（船）下水;n. 发射；（新产品的）上市sophistication: n.复杂精妙；世故；诡辩model: v.模仿；将......做成模型；塑造；n.模型；模仿movement: n.动作；移动；运动；活动contest: n.比赛；竞赛；v.争取；争辩；质疑fix: v.固定；修理；安装；确定；解决stove: n.炉子；火炉programme: v.编程；计划；安排;n.程序；节目；计划raw: adj.生的；未加工的；原始的ingredient: n.原料；要素；（构成）成分domestic: adj.家庭的；家用的；国内的；本国的；n.家佣；家庭纠纷commercial: adj.商业的；盈利的；贸易的；n.商业广告version: n.版本；说法；译本model on: 模仿；以......为模型open up the possibility of: 使......成为可能；为.......开辟可能性
