Photo: NYT
The slow AI in-store build.
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING
It has been announced that supermarket chain Woolworths has recently expanded the use of a new self-serve checkout feature at hundreds more locations across the country.
The technology uses camera surveillance and AI scanners to detect when items are not put through self-checkouts correctly.
If an error occurs, footage of the scan appears on the cash register screen, while lights go off treating the customer as a criminal for even the slightest of mishaps. A light on the camera above the cash register also changes from green, to red or orange.
The roll-out follows a recent trial phase which began in February 2022 at the Seven Hills Woolworths in NSW.
Since then, the technology has been rolled out for use at more than 250 stores.
The technology will also be used as a ‘training tool’ for new Woolworths staff.
Woolworths told reporters it is continuing to roll out the technology at more stores across NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
“It helps reduce misscans and is one of a number of initiatives we’ve rolled out across our checkouts to make shopping more convenient and seamless,” a spokesperson said.
“While most customers do the right thing at our self-serve checkouts, we’re all busy and mistakes can easily happen.”
Good thing the prying eyes of Big Brother are watching your every movement.
How kind of them!
“We’d like to thank our customers for their support while we’ve implemented this initiative.”
However, not everyone is happy with the introduction of the technology.
Some Woolworths customers have shared their dismay online, stating they believe it is an invasion of their privacy.
“Dear Woolworths, I don’t appreciate being treated like a criminal,” one person tweeted.
“I’m sick of standing waiting for assistance because they think I’ve stolen something,” another added.
“If you leave anything in your trolley or basket they lock up and won’t proceed to payment without intervention from the frazzled supervisor,” a third piped in.
Another shopper added the technology had flagged them simply because they had a toddler in their trolley.
Signs are displayed at both the front of store and entrance to the self-service checkout area in every applicable store.
The supermarket added it has ‘strict policies’ to ‘protect customer privacy’.
Ah, yes. Those words make me feel safe that third-parties aren’t watching..
The new technology continues to expand even after backlash hit several retailers last year — including Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys — who were using facial recognition cameras at the front door.
“The Australian community was shocked and angered by the use of facial recognition in retail settings. We know that people are really concerned about facial recognition being used in this way,” CHOICE consumer data advocate Kate Bower said.
“Australia’s privacy law is struggling to keep up with the ever-evolving uses of facial recognition technology.”
While this looks like a simple and ‘efficient’ measure introduced to shops, it is one piece of a much larger digital vision.
THE NWO CHAIN
Although many may simply see this measure as an evolution in retail practice, carrying on and ‘improving’ the already-installed self-checkout terminals that have been in place for years.
But those people aren’t looking at the bigger picture or the plans Woolworths has for the future.
When it comes to checkouts, artificial intelligence will eventually phase out the need for checkouts all together, as supermarkets switch to biometric identification measures like the ones seen in Amazon stores.
The eventual plan is to have people sign up for an account, scan their faces, and instead of paying for their items when leaving the store at a checkout, the customer simply walks out and the camera recognises who they are — charging their account automatically.
Interesting that the timing of this goal is 2030. I’m sure that’s just a ‘coincidence’.
In a few years, there will barely be any staff left in supermarkets at all, as groups like Woolworths begin a shift to automated workforces. They are starting at distribution centres, are filling shops as ‘helpers’ and more.
Key logistics facilities in Sydney and Melbourne have already lost hundreds of employees during this transition so far:
Woolworths also trialled cashless payment systems at 11 CBD stores across these regions in 2020, announcing that these locations would not be accepting cash payments from customers.
So, as you can see, the influx of cameras and increase of checkout surveillance is just the beginning of a much larger plan.
Under the guise of ‘convenience’, they are building the small digital AI produce hubs of the future.
That way, if you haven’t signed up for digital ID or cashless society systems, there won’t be any humans to talk too in-store.
It will all be decided by the biometric database and their assessment of you.
This is the vision, at least.
We still have time to call this out for what it is and demand an end to this building agenda.
Have you run into one of these new checkouts?
Let us know in the comment section below!
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I have ditched self-checkouts, sick of having to ask for assistance, what will it be like for the attendent when these new ones fail as well. I will boycott them, stand in line and pay cash, or go to a small business that excepts cash too. Yes how on earth will they get all these new things in place for 2030?, there are bound to be a lot of failures.
A number of Woolworths stores around where I live have been trialing these new self-serve checkout cameras, it’s very creepy to say the least and I try to avoid using them as much as possible! No doubt that Coles will be next to introduce this type of surveillance at their self-serve checkouts in the near future.
Great! BOYCOTT ALL STORES USING ‘THIS’ TECH! – ER, Tell Yer Friends as well – OF COURSE!
‘People’ HAVE TO Physically ‘Put Themselves out’, For ‘Human Existences’, which includes the SAME Quasi NON Competition Banksters, & go for a Local ‘Community Bank’ to ‘Support’! CASH ONLY!
IF the ‘Plebs’ Don’t want to be ‘InCONvenienced’, & adhere to DigiSwindle, THEY, can Lament their ‘Personal Choices’, When, IF, they are Allowed to ‘Think’ in their SELF CREATED ‘G’ PRISMS!
GREED RULES! = IT’S AN ALPHA CorpoRAT OPS / EXISTENCE ETHOS!
Wellness.
Yes!