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

I was military before my first civilian job.

We had that lesson beat into our heads repeatedly, and yet there were still people who never quite picked up on it.

We had the consent to monitoring pop-up every single time we logged onto a government computer, and then had that consent to monitoring explicitly spelled out every three months as we had to complete a computer based training program.

For some people, it still didn't take.

All that said, this particular thought crime detection effort is creepy as fuck.

You're spot on, however the pervasiveness of this kind of data collection and analysis seems to have really picked up in recent years.

In my workplace a similar tool was put in place to keep an eye out for potential fraud, sensitive data being shared, that kind of thing, but at least one exec very quickly started asking questions about "enhancing" it, laughingly suggesting it could help identify flight risks in areas they're looking to cut headcount in, so they could "remove barriers to their exit" rather than having to pay severance. (To quote the great philosopher Nelly, "I'm just kidding like Jason... unless you're gonna do it")

Don't forget too that this is just monitoring chats, there are plenty of other sources of data that could be used against you if so desired.

IMHO the issue isn't so much that people are using work-controlled platforms to say things that workplace doesn't like (though that is an issue), it's more the shift in the employer mindset that tools like this enable, and the huge imbalance it can create when it comes to salary negotiations, constructive dismissal, mass layoffs, union busting, etc.

At least in the case of Walmart it’s more that the “work PCs” are many people’s personal phones. They’ve pushed employees to install work software with very invasive privacy permissions in lieu of providing dedicated handheld devices, you may notice this if you’re buying something age-restricted at self checkout and the clerk scans a QR code instead of entering an id on the terminal.

My work is offering free shoes to employees that walk a lot on job sites. I won't be wearing them until I've gone over them as I would not put it past my company to put trackers in them so they can track us on our patrols more.

There's a difference to me between recording and monitoring. I expect nearly everything I do is recorded and I don't mind that so much. An AI system that's scrutinizing every keystroke and click for some violation or inefficiency is just offensive as an adult and as a professional. Profit comes before people, every time.