Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push • Hacker News Board

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#21

Post by irjustin » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 4:56 AM UTC

olalonde wrote: post #13

I wonder how good it is at defecting fake smiles and attitudes. Because I'd rather interact with non-smiling staff than someone who is obviously faking it for the camera. Reminds me the "Welcome to costco, I love you" scene from Idiocracy: https://youtu.be/ZIFCWpn4qQ4?si=nJpGjA33-sf5QE_Z

> Because I'd rather interact with non-smiling staff than someone who is obviously faking it for the camera.

I've been on the receiving end of both numerous times and I'm not sure which I prefer if I'm honest.

- Door greeting. I prefer a fake smile. I'm not going to interact with you.

- I have a problem. I'm agnostic as long as you can help me.

Having just thought about it - there's different levels of fake and the shallower the interaction the less I care about your fake smile. But if we're at odds over an issue then I definitely don't want you to smile. That's comes across as a sociopath to me.

Interesting discoveries I just learned about myself.

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#22

Post by threatofrain » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 4:57 AM UTC

stonekyx wrote: post #19

Oh god, I feel sorry for these employees. It’s so disgusting and inhumane to just think about somebody being forced to smile and judged by how good they do that, by a machine!

They already are expected to perform emotional work. Now they'll be measured, but measurement or not that expectation to smile depends on the business culture of your nation. In the US people are expected to smile.

Imagine customers think you're an unhappy waiter. Should they be able to withhold tips because on their romantic evening they're spending time thinking about your personal circumstances? If we say yes then we're basically talking about financial carrot and stick to making people smile.

Employers only care insofar as customers care. The customer is the root reason.

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#23

Post by junaru » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 4:59 AM UTC

> On July 1, the national brand announced it had become the world’s first company to promote a smile-gauging AI system,

The fact they are boasting about it publicly is sickening. This is quite frankly human abuse and they are proud of it.

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#24

Post by DaoVeles » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 5:01 AM UTC

greesil wrote: post #9

ainoobler wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only going to get better and better.

Insufficient enthusiasm. You have been fined one credit.

Please drink Mountain Dew verification can.

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#25

Post by photonbeam » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 5:03 AM UTC

threatofrain wrote: post #22

stonekyx wrote: post #19

Oh god, I feel sorry for these employees. It’s so disgusting and inhumane to just think about somebody being forced to smile and judged by how good they do that, by a machine!

They already are expected to perform emotional work. Now they'll be measured, but measurement or not that expectation to smile depends on the business culture of your nation. In the US people are expected to smile. Imagine customers think you're an unhappy waiter. Should they be able to withhold tips because on their romantic evening they're spending time thinking about your personal circumstances? If we say yes then…

The problem is that it wont be fair evaluation, regardless of a human or computer adjudicator

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#26

Post by threatofrain » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 5:05 AM UTC

photonbeam wrote: post #25

threatofrain wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already are expected to perform emotional work. Now they'll be measured, but measurement or not that expectation to smile depends on the business culture of your nation. In the US people are expected to smile. Imagine customers think you're an unhappy waiter. Should they be able to withhold tips because on their romantic evening they're spending time thinking about your personal circumstances? If we say yes then…

The problem is that it wont be fair evaluation, regardless of a human or computer adjudicator

Is that the problem? Merely the quality of the technology? And what if it turns out pretty decent? This could be quite a shallow moat.

Any restaurant that allows tips already has human evaluation.

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#27

Post by JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 5:06 AM UTC

threatofrain wrote: post #22

stonekyx wrote: post #19

Oh god, I feel sorry for these employees. It’s so disgusting and inhumane to just think about somebody being forced to smile and judged by how good they do that, by a machine!

They already are expected to perform emotional work. Now they'll be measured, but measurement or not that expectation to smile depends on the business culture of your nation. In the US people are expected to smile. Imagine customers think you're an unhappy waiter. Should they be able to withhold tips because on their romantic evening they're spending time thinking about your personal circumstances? If we say yes then…

> They already are expected to perform emotional work

This must stop. Being polite is my only expectation.

> withhold tips

There are no tips in Japan.

> Employers only care insofar as customers care

Employers are often disconnected from reality and don’t care about what customers feel. They think they have a great idea and implement it anyway.

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#28

Post by threatofrain » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 5:09 AM UTC

JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B wrote: post #27

threatofrain wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already are expected to perform emotional work. Now they'll be measured, but measurement or not that expectation to smile depends on the business culture of your nation. In the US people are expected to smile. Imagine customers think you're an unhappy waiter. Should they be able to withhold tips because on their romantic evening they're spending time thinking about your personal circumstances? If we say yes then…

> They already are expected to perform emotional work This must stop. Being polite is my only expectation. > withhold tips There are no tips in Japan. > Employers only care insofar as customers care Employers are often disconnected from reality and don’t care about what customers feel. They think they have a great idea and implement it anyway.

> Now they'll be measured, but measurement or not that expectation to smile depends on the business culture of your nation. In the US people are expected to smile.

You might have missed this. I'm expecting this technology is going to have impact beyond Japan so I specifically mentioned the US. If you want to keep on talking about Japan and not broader impact that's up to you.

> Employers are often disconnected from reality and don’t care about what customers feel. They think they have a great idea and implement it anyway.

Employers are allowed to run their own empiricism. This is no different than people being expected to dress as Donald Duck in Florida, except dressing as Donald Duck is likely much more awful work.

And if you think employers are disconnected then having less data is only going to worsen the situation. That's going to lend to more business superstition.

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#29

Post by presentation » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 5:12 AM UTC

PSA Japanese people would find this as weird as anyone else would, if not more so since Japanese people often make efforts to avoid being recorded and photographed.

That said I tried searching in Japanese for news coverage about this but the only things I found were the PR Times press release from Aeon, and an article based off of it from IT Media republished by a few no-name news blogs. So I guess the Japanese reception has been that of general disinterest.

Re: Japan chain uses AI to gauge staff smiles, speech tones in QoS push

#30

Post by userbinator » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 5:15 AM UTC

TheDong wrote: post #16

userbinator wrote: post #10

This is not surprising given that Japan is an intensely conformist society. Individuality is not something they value much.

This isn't Japan-specific, and retail jobs basically anywhere in the world are similarly soul-crushing. Don't tell me you think the job of a walmart cashier in america values individuality and freedom in some uniquely american way. Support staff in the US, and anywhere, for ages have had all their customer interactions recorded, and sentiment analysis run to automatically gauge them as being nice enough or not. Amazo…

The cashiers I see in the US don't look like they were trained to all behave and look exactly the same; and if they were, they certainly weren't making much of an attempt at it.