Main Facts: The Disconnect Between Silicon Valley and the Kitchen In May 2024, the global coffee giant Starbucks made a quiet but significant strategic retreat. Just nine months after the highly publicized rollout of a computer vision-based artificial intelligence inventory system, the company deactivated the technology. While the tech world often views such failures as […]

The visual landscape of American Main Streets is changing, and not for the better. The sudden shuttering of neighborhood bistros, the "closed" signs hanging in the windows of long-standing family-run diners, and the stalling of once-promising fast-casual startups have become a somber post-pandemic reality. While economists and armchair analysts frequently point to the "triple threat" […]