Earlier this year, Domino’s, the worldwide purveyor of mediocre pizza, introduced a snazzy tool called the Dom Pizza Checker to its Australia and New Zealand locations. According to its website, in-store cameras “use advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence and sensor technology to identify pizza type, even topping distribution and correct toppings”. If your food doesn’t match your order, or internal quality standards, workers are ordered to make it again. Basically, Big Brother is watching your pizza.
At first glance, this may sound benign. The tech ensures customers receive consistent quality; what could be wrong with that? The answer, dear reader, is that it is 2019: everything is problematic – even pizza. Nick Knight, who runs Domino’s in the region, provided more details about the tool at a recent investor day, revealing that it will be incorporated into a “‘scorecard’ bonus system” for franchises and used to identify underperforming stores. In short, it is a workplace surveillance tool. Welcome to – as the tech website iTnews put it – “the great pizza panopticon”.
Of course, Domino’s would like you to know that there is nothing remotely creepy about this. “Dom Pizza Checker is a tool used to train our team members … not to punish those who make mistakes,” a Domino’s spokesperson told iTnews. But even if that is true, even if we give Domino’s the benefit of the doubt, the Pizza Checker’s all-seeing eyes and calculating AI should still give us pause for thought. Domino’s, after all, is far from the only company tracking workers: workplace surveillance is becoming increasingly pervasive and worryingly sophisticated.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ning-workplace-surveillance-is-coming-for-you
At first glance, this may sound benign. The tech ensures customers receive consistent quality; what could be wrong with that? The answer, dear reader, is that it is 2019: everything is problematic – even pizza. Nick Knight, who runs Domino’s in the region, provided more details about the tool at a recent investor day, revealing that it will be incorporated into a “‘scorecard’ bonus system” for franchises and used to identify underperforming stores. In short, it is a workplace surveillance tool. Welcome to – as the tech website iTnews put it – “the great pizza panopticon”.
Of course, Domino’s would like you to know that there is nothing remotely creepy about this. “Dom Pizza Checker is a tool used to train our team members … not to punish those who make mistakes,” a Domino’s spokesperson told iTnews. But even if that is true, even if we give Domino’s the benefit of the doubt, the Pizza Checker’s all-seeing eyes and calculating AI should still give us pause for thought. Domino’s, after all, is far from the only company tracking workers: workplace surveillance is becoming increasingly pervasive and worryingly sophisticated.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ning-workplace-surveillance-is-coming-for-you
