The following report is from The Verge:
Tech company Canon has come up with a downright dystopic way to tackle the problem of workplace morale: it’s installed cameras with AI-enabled “smile recognition” technology in the offices of its Chinese subsidiary Canon Information Technology. The cameras only let smiling workers enter rooms or book meetings, ensuring that every employee is definitely, 100% happy all the time.
This depressing tale was highlighted in a report from The Financial Times on how Chinese companies are surveilling employees to an unsettling degree with the help of AI and algorithms. Firms are monitoring which programs employees use on their computers to gauge their productivity; using CCTV cameras to measure how long they take on their lunch break; and even tracking their movements outside the office using mobile apps.
As the King’s College London academic Nick Srnicek told the FT:
Workers are not being replaced by algorithms and artificial intelligence. Instead, the management is being sort of augmented by these technologies […] Technologies are increasing the pace for people who work with machines instead of the other way around, just like what happened during the industrial revolution in the 18th century.
Canon Information Technology actually announced its “smile recognition” cameras last year as part of a suite of workplace management tools, but the technology doesn’t seem to have gotten much attention. Indeed, the fact it passed under the radar is a good illustration of just how common surveillance tools like this are becoming — and not just in China.
Although readers in the West sometimes have a tendency to dismiss the sort of surveillance described by the FT as a foreign phenomena, countries like the US and UK are just as culpable. Amazon is perhaps the prime example of this dynamic: it’s known for squeezing every ounce of effort from its warehouse workers at the expense of their health, and even ranking their productivity using algorithms before firing those at the bottom of the scale.
Such modern-day Taylorism is not restricted to blue collar jobs, either: many modern software suites like Microsoft 365 come with built-in surveillance tools. And with more people working from home because of the pandemic, more companies are deploying these features for fear of losing control over their workers. (Or, for a slightly more cynical read: they’ve always wanted to use these tools and the pandemic provides a handy pretext.)
In other words: AI-enabled smile recognition cameras are in many ways the least dangerous types of surveillance technology. They have the benefit of being obvious. Other systems of control are much more subtle, and probably coming to an office near you sometime soon.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
[12] For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; [13] In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. [14] And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. [15] Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.Isaiah 59:12-15
Interestingly enough, in late-May of this year, a new survey found that two out of every three office workers said their job was too “painfully monotonous,” and wished that AI would help and aid in their work. Well, now they are starting to get their wish: just not what they expected.
The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.
Proverbs 12:24
Now that people are pretty much tracked and surveilled in every which way possible, the next step in the plan of the takeover and enslavement of the masses for this new world order is to brainwash people into mindless zombies that are forced to act a certain way. But when that is not sufficient to “solve the problem” that they created, then they can start explicitly brainwashing people. WinePress readers know that this has become a new trend that will only strengthen as the time passes on.
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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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If they installed one in my office, I would be out of a job. Hmm, so am I for it or against it? (ROFL)
.\\itch – Romans 4:20-21 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
More fake ‘love’ and ‘joy’. Just what the world needs. In my comments to store clerks & where I am permitted to actually comment on those ridiculous questionaires, I’ve been letting them know that the system of control causing such mandatory boot-licking & fakery putting good employees faithfully doing their jobs at the mercy of the LCD and never-satisfied types is not well-received by consumers, nor required, & unjust. All we want is for folks to do their jobs & most of us see them as equals, not subservient lessers & lower caste somehow.
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I used to write in my REAL opinions & choices on those faked mailed out, postage paid bogus garbage polls, too……ignoring their non-response steered answers a,b, or c. Problem is: the steerers & sorcerers of craft, the ‘gods’, don’t care & have amassed enough power now that they’re not afraid to show it. Yearning for the catching up in hope this doesn’t drag out much longer, it is incredibly painful. And now we have more insight, not only on the necessity of loving God before our family & loved ones….but the additional pain Christ suffered as he wept over Jerusalem, & those lost. Even in his resolve & setting his face like flint, he never stopped loving, & it was never his will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, then, or now.
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That hurts. God help us not to grow calloused & hard as we go forward & must deal with the loss, faithfully warning those who will hear, and those who we must separate from.