Coffee Shop in Budapest Recruits Robots to Serve Food

Pepper is an 'emotional' robot which has been available to buy since June 2015 (AFP/Getty Images )
Pepper is an 'emotional' robot which has been available to buy since June 2015 (AFP/Getty Images )
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Coffee Shop in Budapest Recruits Robots to Serve Food

Pepper is an 'emotional' robot which has been available to buy since June 2015 (AFP/Getty Images )
Pepper is an 'emotional' robot which has been available to buy since June 2015 (AFP/Getty Images )

The robots at the Enjoy Budapest Cafe can do it all. They can serve up food and drink, tell jokes, dance with the kids or just hang out for a chat with customers.

The cafe, which has opened in the Hungarian capital, is staffed by a whole team of robots that help familiarize the public with the technological revolution in automation and artificial intelligence.

According to Reuters, the robot waiters follow fixed paths to deliver food and drink orders to customers, who are asked to keep out of the robots’ way, while others serve up entertainment.

Among these robots is Pepper, a "receptionist" that can hold a conversation and also dance with customers. Despite fears that increasing automation and artificial intelligence will take away employment from humans, Enjoy Budapest Cafe’s robots aren’t putting anyone out of a job yet.

"We actually employ twice as many people as before, because we need to have IT specialists for the robots' maintenance," the manager says.



DeepSeek Faces Expulsion from App Stores in Germany

FILE - The smartphone apps DeepSeek page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
FILE - The smartphone apps DeepSeek page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
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DeepSeek Faces Expulsion from App Stores in Germany

FILE - The smartphone apps DeepSeek page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
FILE - The smartphone apps DeepSeek page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

Germany has taken steps towards blocking Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from the Apple and Google app stores due to concerns about data protection, according to a data protection authority commissioner in a statement on Friday.

DeepSeek has been reported to the two US tech giants as illegal content, said commissioner Meike Kamp, and the companies must now review the concerns and decide whether to block the app in Germany, Reuters reported.

"DeepSeek has not been able to provide my agency with convincing evidence that German users' data is protected in China to a level equivalent to that in the European Union," she said.

"Chinese authorities have far-reaching access rights to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies," she added.

The move comes after Reuters exclusively reported this week that DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations.

DeepSeek, which shook the technology world in January with claims that it had developed an AI model that rivaled those from US firms such as ChatGPT creator OpenAI at much lower cost, says it stores numerous personal data, such as requests to the AI or uploaded files, on computers in China.