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Microsoft Wants To Monitor Your Workplace With AI, Computer Vision and the Cloud (gizmodo.com)
"If you're an employee under the heel of a giant corporation you should probably be terrified by the vision of the future of connected gadgets that Microsoft just revealed at its Build developer conference here in Seattle," warns Gizmodo. Slashdot reader dryriver writes:
Gizmodo reports on a Microsoft Workplace Monitoring demo where CCTV cameras watch a workplace -- like a construction site -- on 24/7 basis, and AI algorithms constantly oversee and evaluate what is happening in that workplace. The system can track where employees are, where physical equipment and tools are at what time, who does what at what time in this workplace and apparently use Cloud-based AI of some sort to evaluate what is happening in the workplace being monitored. Spotting employees misbehaving, breaking workplace rules or putting themselves and expensive equipment at risk may be the intended "value proposition" this system brings to the workplace. Another aspect may be reducing insurance premiums employers pay by creating a strict, highly monitored work environment. But the system is also very Big Brother -- an AI is monitoring people and equipment in a workplace in realtime at all times, and all the data ends up being processed in the Microsoft Cloud.
Gizmodo gave their article the title, "Microsoft's Latest Workplace Tech Demos Creep Me Out."
Gizmodo gave their article the title, "Microsoft's Latest Workplace Tech Demos Creep Me Out."
Can't wait for this to become compulsory and industry standard. Just what the cube farm needed more discomfort!
Wonder if Microsoft has implemented this software on their own premises? Given Microsoft's track record, how long will it take some hacker to mess with the AI and gets some company on the hook for wrongful termination based on erroneous data?
Captcha: captive
Technology was supposed to make our lives easier and free us. How come with every advance, it feels more like oppression?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Because of course, Microsoft will have absolutely perfect security, preventing any and all attempts to hack in and steal it.
You can absolutely trust them. So feel fine recording everything your employees do, allowing your competitors to buy the videos. Microsoft of course will try their very best to protect your company's most important data.
They will even refund the money you pay them after you lose millions. If you can figure out what happened.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
There are pretty strict limits on monitoring employees in Europe. These are not merely in place to protect human rights. As it turns out, employees monitored permanently are under more significantly stress, perform worse, make more mistakes, have more sick days and have about zero loyalty to their employer. Pretty much the same reason why slave-labor is usually of low quality, quality too low for modern jobs.
As is typical for them, a Microsoft "innovation" makes things worse for everybody. Microsoft just does not have it. They are fundamentally lacking any understanding of how the world actually works. No surprise for a company that owes the single reason why they are big to a historical accident.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Back 10-15 years ago, Microsoft had a reputation for getting their products into businesses seen as having Microsoft-resistant tech folks by completely bypassing those tech folks... wining and dining VPs or even the CEO, who then mandated that the company was going to implement Exchange (or whatever). This just seems like a variant of that older playbook.
#DeleteChrome
Monitored and evaluated by a computer every minute of the workday, sounds like fucking paradise.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I remember in the 80es or 90es, when there was yet another craze for the latest fad in 'efficiency', and some people had to clock in and -out to go to a break or the toilet. Imagine the surprise, when it turned out that people don't thrive when they feel they are not trusted to do their job well, and productivity fell. Perhaps this will catch on in management circles, for a while, but it will fizzle out in the end, because it will cost money and it will harm productivity.
Monitoring, monitoring, eggs, beans and monitoring. That hasn't got much monitoring in it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Have gnu, will travel.
We saw the demo in the online conference. We joked it would announce, "Fred is picking his nose in cubicle 47, which is a violation of health and safety guidelines! Fred will be escorted out..."
Table-ized A.I.
A good manager's job is to remove obstacles to productivity, enable the staff, and then get out of the way.
Someone who I consider my management mentor told me long ago when I first had a management position, "Your job is to sit in your office and wait for someone to bring you a problem." And while that was something of a simplification, the basics of it were true then and are true now.
One of the greatest keys to efficiency in many types of positions, especially those which require sitting behind a desk, is employees knowing under their own judgment when it is okay to goof off for two or three minutes here and there. I am not talking about the manager facebooking all day, I am talk about the people who get things done. It is important for desk jockeys who know the workflow and their environment well enough to be able to stop what they are doing for a moment, scan some headlines, toss a stress ball around, or whatever, and then get back to it. This produces better work and a happier workplace. Lunches are great and so are breaks. But being able to take a quick BS moment or two out of the day is essential. I could carry on about this as a philosophy, but I'm betting most people here know what I am talking about. We do not need this. We cannot have this... well, unless it means firing deadweight middle management. Perhaps then we can make a deal.
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