Walmart has invested more than $500,000,000 to try to stop ant theft with artificial intelligence in its stores.
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Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
As a way to avoid crowds at checkouts when paying and with the aim of reducing item theft, Walmart managers have been implementing new security and self-checkout systems in their stores to the public.but several employees who work in them describe the machines as cumbersome and inefficient to the point of detesting them.
Six years ago, the supermarket chain hired the Irish artificial intelligence company Everseen to implement a new technology in its stores, which would be in charge of monitoring that customers scanned all purchase items before leaving the stores. estate.
In this way, in the event that the system detected something strange in the self-payment area, the security personnel were immediately alerted to go and check it thoroughly.
As the months passed, the artificial intelligence system was present in thousands of Walmart stores and it was then that the company made it public.
“Everseen transcends human limitations. Through the use of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, computer vision systems, and big data, we are able to detect abnormal activities and other threats. Our digital eye has perfect vision and never needs a coffee break or a day off”, promised the Irish company in charge of looking after the interests of Walmart.
For his part, LeMia Jenkins, spokeswoman for the supermarket chain, at the time issued a statement where she revealed the enormous investment allocated to the project with which it was intended to stop the ant theft of merchandise in its stores.
“The company has invested more than $500,000,000 in an effort to prevent, reduce and deter crime in our stores and parking lots. We are continually investing in people, programs and technology to keep our stores and communities safe,” the letter said.
Nevertheless, Several employees who work in stores do not seem to like the controversial point of relying on artificial intelligence, since they anonymously declared to The Sun newspaper that technological advances are far from being efficient at points of sale.
According to the information disclosed, Everseen’s AI cameras misidentify customer behavior in the face of potential theft and fail to stop legitimate theft at self-checkout lanes.
The group of dissidents even filmed a home video that supposedly proves the ineffectiveness of Artificial Intelligence security cameras, since it allows people to leave stores with unpaid products that exceed $100 dollars.
In the event that what was exposed to Walmart is corroborated, it would represent a million-dollar injection of money practically thrown away, since the ant robbery continues to the extent that some stores in the chain could close as Doug McMillion commented a few weeks ago in an interview with CNBC.
And it is that it is estimated that Walmart continues to lose close to $3 billion dollars a year due to theft.
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