OOF-AII-528276
Customer Service Robot Scares Away Customers
Heriot-Watt Univeristy in Scotland developed an artificially intelligent grocery store robot, Fabio, who provided unhelpful answers to customer's questions and "scared away" multiple customers, according to the grocery store Margiotta.
- Event date
- 2018-01-22
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Severity
- Moderate
- Evidence state
- Single-source
Assessment status
Generated from available public incident evidence using OOF® governance methodology. It is not an official investigation, legal determination, regulatory finding, certification, or OOF® Approved Assessment.
View source record from AI Incident Database (Responsible AI Collaborative)
Assessment confidence dimensions
- Source corroboration
- Single-source
- Extraction completeness
- High
- Methodological assignment confidence
- Moderate
Measures source-group corroboration only; it does not establish factual truth.
Measures populated source fields after deterministic normalization; it does not measure correctness.
Measures automated assignment support; substantive correctness requires authorized human review.
Known facts from the incident record
- The incident record identifies the event date as 2018-01-22.
- The incident record identifies the location as United Kingdom.
Reported claims
- Heriot-Watt Univeristy in Scotland developed an artificially intelligent grocery store robot, Fabio, who provided unhelpful answers to customer's questions and "scared away" multiple customers, according to the grocery store Margiotta.
Material unknowns
- Independent corroboration is not established in the available incident record.
Primary governance problem
The incident appears to expose a governance problem involving autonomous, execution. Available reporting supports preliminary methodological interpretation, not a finding of fault or non-compliance.
Architecture intelligence
ASGA™ — Autonomous Systems Governance Architecture
Primary architecture
The reported autonomous, execution concern falls within the governed questions represented by ASGA™ — Autonomous Systems Governance Architecture.
Governance focus: How should autonomous, execution be governed in the conditions described by the available incident evidence?
Canonical methodology (ParentStandard):
Preliminary governance questions
- How should autonomous, execution be governed in the conditions described by the available incident evidence?
- What operational authority and controls applied to Heriot Watt University, Margiotta at the relevant time?
- What evidence would establish how yes produced or enabled the reported outcome?
- What additional independent evidence is required to resolve the material evidence gaps?
Evidence gaps and limitations
- Only one independent source group is represented; corroboration is not established.
- AI technology is not specified in the source record.