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Wired is reporting that Walmart employees have serious concerns about the effectiveness of the company's anti-shoplifting "AI" technology (reprint), including unnecessarily breaking COVID-19 related social distancing guidelines.
[...] The employees said they were "past their breaking point" with Everseen, a small artificial intelligence firm based in Cork, Ireland, whose technology Walmart began using in 2017. Walmart uses Everseen in thousands of stores to prevent shoplifting at registers and self-checkout kiosks. But the workers claimed it misidentified innocuous behavior as theft, and often failed to stop actual instances of stealing.
[...] The coronavirus pandemic has given their concerns more urgency. One Concerned Home Office Associate said they worry false positives could be causing Walmart workers to break social-distancing guidelines unnecessarily. When Everseen flags an issue, a store associate needs to intervene and determine whether shoplifting or another problem is taking place. In an internal communication from April obtained by WIRED, a corporate Walmart manager expressed strong concern that workers were being put at risk by the additional contact necessitated by false positives and asked whether the Everseen system should be turned off to protect customers and workers.
Before COVID-19, "it wasn't ideal, it was a poor customer experience," the worker said. "AI is now creating a public health risk."
[...] at least 20 Walmart associates have now died after contracting the coronavirus, according to United For Respect.
[...] A spokesperson for Walmart said the company has been working diligently to protect customers and its workforce, and believes the rate at which associates have contracted Covid-19 is lower than that of the general US population.
[...] The company said it has taken a number of steps to ensure people are protected during these interactions, including regularly cleaning self-checkout kiosks and providing employees with protective equipment. In addition, workers are given handheld devices that allow them to handle most interventions from a distance, the company said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @10:22AM (1 child)
> and believes the rate at which associates have contracted Covid-19 is lower than that of the general US population.
I should hope so. I'm assuming that "the general US population" includes everyone, and includes, for example, high risk groups like nursing home residents and health care workers. Just about any other occupation should be lower risk than the overall average?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @12:17PM
Contracting, not dying from it. They are a public facing occupation, I would expect a higher risk of catching it.
Also, notice he said "he believes" the rate is lower, a sure tell for a corporate lie. If it was true he would have just stated it. He can state under oath that he believes the moon is made of blue cheese if he likes. "Beliefs" are meaningless.