Critics argue that this kind of AI surveillance treats people like inventory and could have a chilling effect on workplace communication. There are also concerns about privacy, as even anonymized data can often be traced back to individuals. Aware's CEO, Jeff Schumann, insists that the AI models are not making decisions but are simply identifying potential risks or policy violations. He also states that when an interaction is flagged, it provides full context around what happened and what policy it triggered, allowing investigation teams to decide the next steps.
Key takeaways:
- Several major companies, including Walmart, Delta Air Lines, T-Mobile, Chevron, and Starbucks, are using a startup called Aware to monitor their employees' communications using artificial intelligence.
- Aware's AI models can analyze messages and images to identify behaviors such as bullying, harassment, discrimination, and noncompliance, and can also monitor employee sentiment in real time.
- The AI models do not have the ability to flag individual employee names, but a separate tool can do so in cases of extreme threats or other risk behaviors.
- There are concerns about the privacy implications of this technology, with critics arguing that it treats people like inventory and could have a chilling effect on workplace communication.