Supermarket chain Sainsbury's has temporarily suspended the use of an artificial intelligence system to scan faces at one of its London stores after the technology mistakenly identified a shopper as a thief, prompting managers to ask him to leave the premises.
Supermarket chain Sainsbury's has temporarily suspended the use of an artificial intelligence system to scan faces at one of its London stores after the technology mistakenly identified a shopper as a thief, prompting managers to ask him to leave the premises.
As The Guardian notes , the incident occurred with 46-year-old promoter Matt Arnold. While paying for goods at a self-service checkout, employees approached him and said that they could not serve him due to a “previous incident.” The man was asked to leave, and during the argument, he noticed his face on the CCTV monitor, circled in red by the system.
“I was embarrassed, even depressed, feeling humiliated and helpless,” Arnold shared his impressions.
The buyer noted that the staff did not try to analyze the situation, but “just blindly followed the machine’s orders.” He expressed concern about how uncritically society relies on algorithmic decisions, and emphasized that such a mistake could have much more serious consequences for people with anxiety disorders or those who are unable to stand up for themselves.
The following day, Sainsbury's head office apologized to the customer and announced that the Facewatch system had been suspended in this store while an investigation was underway. However, both the retailer and the developer of the AI system deny that there was a direct technical failure. According to them, the algorithm worked correctly, and the error occurred due to a human factor when processing the notification. Company representatives assure that the accuracy of the Facewatch system is 99.98%, and each match is additionally checked by a trained employee.
Previously, an artificial intelligence-based surveillance system mistakenly mistook a bag of chips for a firearm, resulting in the arrest of a student at an American school.
