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Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

cnbc.com

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Re: Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

#11

Post by freedomben »

voidhorse wrote: post #2

Do we just call all of statistics "AI" now? I fail to see how or why applying basic machine learning techniques for data analysis is "artificial intelligence". This idea that intellection is nothing more than pattern matching is silly and needs to die. Conceptual understanding entails more than just pattern matching.

Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/435/

Sentiment analysis may ultimately just be "statistics" but IMHO it goes way beyond what most people consider statistics, which is collecting, organizing, graphing data. Sentiment analysis draws conclusions from the data, assigning things like "level of negativity" and "level of positivity" among other things. It definitely feels like an artificial type of thing that humans do, so artificial intelligence seems like a reasonable category to me.

Re: Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

#12

Post by earthwalker99 »

freedomben wrote: post #8

As much as this turns my stomach, this is neither new nor unexpected, and honestly this is fairly benign to many of the things that companies do such as precision location tracking throughout the building, using company-issued phones, and using normal security surveillance to monitor "watercooler" talk and things like that. We had our chance to push back against company surveillance well over a decade ago, and nobody…

What could anyone do about it? Workers rights have never been won without a militant organized labor force. "Advocate" for your pet interests all you want, but you aren't accomplishing anything for anyone else unless you're organizing, and "privacy" is frankly a terrible cause to organize around and you seem to already realize that. Focus on wages, time off, and improving peoples everyday working conditions, and you will eventually get your chance to address privacy. That's just the reality of the exploitative system we live under.

Re: Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

#13

Post by brvsft »

sandworm101 wrote: post #6

Ok, exactly which communications does this AI monitor? This seems to be internal corporate coms (corporate email, internal chats) which are not subject to privacy. But the article is very unclear, leaving the reader to assume that they are monitoring social media or something else external to the organization. Internal company communcation channels are open to inspection by the company. Whether that company wants to…

> Depending on where you work, there’s a significant chance that artificial intelligence is analyzing your messages on Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and other popular apps.

I don't think it's so unclear, and it sounds like you understand too, internal comms. I know it seems obvious, but a lot of people wouldn't even immediately guess. (My first guess before RTA was Slack or anything like Slack. I always think, when I use Slack, that it cannot be truly private unless I start manually encrypting my messages with coworkers.)

I'd guess anything that the business has control over might be a candidate. Even easier if the platform allows for apps to be added on at the company level.

Re: Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

#14

Post by kj4211cash »

mistrial9 wrote: post #4

IIR one of a NeurIPS papers (or similar) was a Walmart Labs paper on "Purpose driven AI Guide for Employees" or similar. Multiple mentions of psychological health in the same paper that describes an AI assistant that is hypothetically required for every employee of a certain stripe, that does give instructions and answer questions. As a skeptic, the one-sided description of mental health, and the obvious parallel to…

I work in Tech at Walmart and the funny thing is that of all the places I've worked they do the least in terms of surveying employee satisfaction. If they just asked, I and many of my colleagues would be happy to tell them which people and policies are toxic and which are wonderful. There's broad agreement in the rank and file on much of this. There are some truly awful and some truly wonderful things about the way Walmart manages tech. When I mentioned this to my VP, the response was basically that Walmart top level management didn't want to know some things because they might be compelled to act. Maybe all this "AI" rigamarole is just a way for Walmart top level management to get information without being legally or morally obligated to do anything?

Re: Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

#15

Post by sandworm101 »

brvsft wrote: post #13
sandworm101 wrote: post #6

Ok, exactly which communications does this AI monitor? This seems to be internal corporate coms (corporate email, internal chats) which are not subject to privacy. But the article is very unclear, leaving the reader to assume that they are monitoring social media or something else external to the organization. Internal company communcation channels are open to inspection by the company. Whether that company wants to…

> Depending on where you work, there’s a significant chance that artificial intelligence is analyzing your messages on Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and other popular apps. I don't think it's so unclear, and it sounds like you understand too, internal comms. I know it seems obvious, but a lot of people wouldn't even immediately guess. (My first guess before RTA was Slack or anything like Slack. I always think, when I…

I still call that unclear as many people use Slack and Teams for non-work stuff, or at multiple jobs. The tone of the article leaves a big open door by not directly stating that this is about monitoring employer-controlled channels rather than all slack or teams traffic.

Re: Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

#17

Post by jsg76 »

freedomben wrote: post #8

As much as this turns my stomach, this is neither new nor unexpected, and honestly this is fairly benign to many of the things that companies do such as precision location tracking throughout the building, using company-issued phones, and using normal security surveillance to monitor "watercooler" talk and things like that. We had our chance to push back against company surveillance well over a decade ago, and nobody…

5. Make friends with all the sys admins. Thats the simplest way to bypass whatever bullshit corporate robots dream up. Like Jurassic Park they love to believe they control everything thats going on in the park. In reality their control rooms are full of Dennis Nedrys.

Re: Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

#18

Post by freedomben »

earthwalker99 wrote: post #12
freedomben wrote: post #8

As much as this turns my stomach, this is neither new nor unexpected, and honestly this is fairly benign to many of the things that companies do such as precision location tracking throughout the building, using company-issued phones, and using normal security surveillance to monitor "watercooler" talk and things like that. We had our chance to push back against company surveillance well over a decade ago, and nobody…

What could anyone do about it? Workers rights have never been won without a militant organized labor force. "Advocate" for your pet interests all you want, but you aren't accomplishing anything for anyone else unless you're organizing, and "privacy" is frankly a terrible cause to organize around and you seem to already realize that. Focus on wages, time off, and improving peoples everyday working conditions, and you…

Thanks, your comment is interesting. Just want to clarify on something as we might have different definitions/understanding.

> Workers rights have never been won without a militant organized labor force.

Just in the past few years, many companies have started giving generous paternal/maternal leave policies. Which militant organization brought that change about? Or would you not consider that to be workers rights? If the latter, can you give me some examples of what you consider to be workers rights so we can be on the same page?

Re: Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

#19

Post by [deleted] »

sandworm101 wrote: post #15
brvsft wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Depending on where you work, there’s a significant chance that artificial intelligence is analyzing your messages on Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and other popular apps. I don't think it's so unclear, and it sounds like you understand too, internal comms. I know it seems obvious, but a lot of people wouldn't even immediately guess. (My first guess before RTA was Slack or anything like Slack. I always think, when I…

I still call that unclear as many people use Slack and Teams for non-work stuff, or at multiple jobs. The tone of the article leaves a big open door by not directly stating that this is about monitoring employer-controlled channels rather than all slack or teams traffic.

[deleted]

Re: Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages

#20

Post by SoftTalker »

jsg76 wrote: post #17
freedomben wrote: post #8

As much as this turns my stomach, this is neither new nor unexpected, and honestly this is fairly benign to many of the things that companies do such as precision location tracking throughout the building, using company-issued phones, and using normal security surveillance to monitor "watercooler" talk and things like that. We had our chance to push back against company surveillance well over a decade ago, and nobody…

5. Make friends with all the sys admins. Thats the simplest way to bypass whatever bullshit corporate robots dream up. Like Jurassic Park they love to believe they control everything thats going on in the park. In reality their control rooms are full of Dennis Nedrys.

Because sys admins are going to risk their jobs and expose themselves to possible civil claims for damages or even criminal charges by intentionally circumventing company policy for their friends? A few might, I guess. I wouldn't , nor would any that I know.

A better 5. is probably lobby your lawmakers for stronger workplace privacy laws.

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