After more than a year of waiting, Amazon's mini-mart of the future, Amazon Go, finally opened today in Seattle. With the long-awaited launch, Amazon's finally gets to test its retail store of the future with real consumers (and not just employees), where customers can simply pluck items from shelves and exit the store without ever having interact with a cashier or other store employees.

Last week, Dunkin' Donuts cut the ribbon on its "next-generation concept store" in Quincy, MA. The site will act as a pilot store of sorts, where Dunkin' can test out new store concepts and branding efforts before deciding to roll the changes out to more locations. The Quincy store opened about a mile away from the original 1948 Dunkin' Donuts location.

Of all the uses for robots, harvesting plants seems like one of the most practical and therefore promising ways to put these machines to work.

Since Airbnb hosts are really just hotel operators on a micro-scale, it makes sense they'd eventually start to selling things to add to their bottom lines.

That's the idea behind the Qvie, a tiny connected vending machine the size of a small mailbox that allows hosts to offer bottles of wine, snacks or pretty much whatever a host can fit inside.

The reason why the dishwasher is one of those everyday conveniences most of us don't think about is because we don't have to; after all, today's dishwashers pretty much all come in the same size, use roughly the same amount of water, and all take about an hour or more to run through a wash cycle. But here's the problem with one-sized fits all machines: not every task - or dish load - is the same size.

Israeli startup SuperMeat, which is developing lab-grown chicken meat, announced today that it has raised $3 million in seed funding (hat tip to TechCrunch) and formed a partnership with PHW, one of Europe's largest poultry producers.

If you've ever worked for a company that caters buffet-style lunches every day, then you're familiar with the 11:30 rush. Hordes of people line up in an attempt to get all the good stuff before its gone. Heaven forbid you're in a meeting that lasts till noon and all that's left are tepid tacos or congealed carnitas. Bay Area startup Forkable wants to change the way companies offer lunch perks by using smart recommendations to deliver individual lunches instead of the massive buffets.

While over 50% of Echos end up in the kitchen, preparing food with Alexa has been stunted by a lack of built-in cooking capability in Amazon's popular voice assistant. That will soon change.

The Cali Group announced today that it has launched a facial recognition ordering kiosk pilot program at its Pasadena CaliBurger restaurant. The move is another step towards full automation for the quick-service restaurant chain, which debuted Flippy, the burger flipping robot, at that same location earlier this year.

Well, you've done it. You've waited until the last minute to do your Christmas shopping and now it's here. But don't worry! Your friends at The Spoon have you covered. Here's a Smart Kitchen Gift Guide for your favorite cooking companions packed with items you can still get before the big day.