back to article AI surveillance software increasingly used to make sure contract lawyers are doing their jobs at home

Contract lawyers are increasingly working under the thumb of facial-recognition software as they continue to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The technology is hit-and-miss, judging from interviews with more than two dozen American attorneys conducted by the Washington Post. To make sure these contract lawyers, who …

  1. Snowy Silver badge
    Holmes

    People

    They still have people working at Amazon fulfilment centres because they do not have robot that can do some of the work yet.

    1. Chris G

      Re: People

      "They still have people working at Amazon fulfilment centres because they do not have robot that can do some of the work yet."

      Plus people are mostly self maintaining and self repairing to some degree so they are probably cheaper.

      it is a sign of things to come that even lawyers are heavily surveilled, possibly more than the bezobots are, this is one of the real dangers of AI, that everyone will be watched and their behaviour analyzed 24/7.

      "Your weekly social score comrade, your nose picking and arse scratching is reducing your weekly output by as much as 0.025%. Ten social score points deducted!"

      1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
        WTF?

        Re: People

        ... everyone will be watched and their behaviour analyzed 24/7...

        This is seen as completely acceptable when applied to corporate workers but what would we hear if it was applied to politicians? Do you think that Boris, Donald, Priti, and Kamala would be happy if they were monitored at work? I imagine that we'd hear squealing 24/7 that it needs to be banned.

        1. SCP

          Re: People

          "... what would we hear if it was applied to politicians?"

          Not sure I would want to hear what Matt Hancock was whispeing in Gina's ear.

          1. WolfFan

            Re: People

            Oh, I would like to know that…

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: People

        You just don't have to waste money on repairs when they break.

        And broken ones haul themselves off to wherever it is that broken labour units get dumped, so you don't end up with a big pile of them rusting on a back lot, and shitty letters from the county about the unsightly mess.

        1. Dinanziame Silver badge
          Devil

          Re: People

          The great thing is, they're biodegradable.

          1. parlei

            Re: People

            At least the ones without mercury amalgam fillings. Those has to be sorted as hazardous waste.

      3. SundogUK Silver badge

        Re: People

        Meh. Where I work, you get a task and a deadline and no one in management really cares how or when it gets done. If you meet the deadline, you're good. I really don't understand why any management would work differently.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: working at Amazon

      the most important word in your post is "Yet".

      Bezos Tas Sellers inc has forgotten that the more humans displaced by robots the less economic activity those said humans will be able to partake in. No money to buy tat from Bezos ! Good. May the Tas Sellers go out of business right now and I'll cheer their demise.

      If you work at said Tat sellers then beware... You will be replaced sooner rather than later. Just don't forget that.

      1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

        Re: working at Amazon

        I doubt he's forgotten. He just made his money then jumped ship, before it happens.

  2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    between 0120am until 12pm

    "between 0120am until 12pm"

    What an odd shift pattern! Everywhere I've ever worked used multiple of 30 mins for shift patterns, most commonly 8hrs or 7hrs 30 mins. I know night shifts are often longer but 11hrs 20 mins seems strange, especially with Amazons obsession with productivity and monitoring and the known fact that night shifts are usually less productive than day shifts.

    1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

      Re: between 0120am until 12pm

      You may find they have 2 20 min unpaid breaks in their shifts or something like that

      One job I worked was 4pm-2.15am.... because of unpaid breaks.... plus was we only had to do 4 shifts a week...

  3. elregidente

    I stopped buying from Amazon about a year ago.

    Every time I read a story like this, I'm happy that I did so.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: I stopped buying from Amazon about a year ago.

      Same here but for some reason Amazon keep ringing me up telling me that I have bought an iPhone 12 from them.

      Funny that!

      1. matjaggard

        Re: I stopped buying from Amazon about a year ago.

        I find Amazon so frustrating. Sometimes I'm willing to pay double and wait a week longer for an item and I can still only find it on Amazon. Why can't other retailers get their act together? Amazon wouldn't have got this dominance if almost every single other retailer didn't try to hide their delivery charges ("Free delivery over £xx" was the most common and then a 20 click process to find how much delivery would cost if I wasn't buying the entire shop) - but now to beat them they need to club together and offer something really worthwhile.

        1. Filippo Silver badge

          Re: I stopped buying from Amazon about a year ago.

          I don't think we'll see another marketplace with shipping as cheap and fast as Amazon's. Their logistics are a real behemoth.

          That said, I think there is room for a marketplace that does nothing more than aggregate retailers, and doesn't handle shipping, leaving it to individual retailers. Very often, I end up buying something on Amazon simply because I don't have time to visit each retailer's web front, figure out how to search it, whether it carries the product, whether it ships to me, how much it costs, etc etc, and do it for dozens of websites.

          A site that does indexing, searching and transactions, but not logistics, would go a long way towards letting me move away from Amazon. It would be both more expensive and slower, but at least it would be a usable alternative, for those of us who object to Amazon on ethical grounds.

          1. Tom Chiverton 1 Silver badge

            Re: I stopped buying from Amazon about a year ago.

            Like Google shopping results ? It's terrible ; price often inaccurate and link doesn't go to the same item

          2. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

            Re: I stopped buying from Amazon about a year ago.

            I hate to say it, but that sounds like Ebay.

            In my experience it's easier to search than *$*%"%* Amazon and you often get better prices. (Although the first thing you have to do is set it to UK sellers only.)

            1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

              Re: I stopped buying from Amazon about a year ago.

              The same "UK sellers" that operate out of Portsmouth or Southampton, make a big noise about fast delivery, yet anything bought from them takes about a week to arrive?

              The same "UK sellers" who repsond to complaints and questions with terrible English, and always at 4 in the morning? (Sadly I accept that terrible English alone covers a lot of people genuinely in the UK).

              1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

                Re: I stopped buying from Amazon about a year ago.

                You have reviews. And it tells you where they are shipping from so you can avoid Pompei or Soton sellers.

                But I've never had any problems. Some, I admit, look suspiciously like warehouses. But they've shipped promptly and don't arrive via obvious international mail

  4. Walt Dismal

    George Orwell is laughing hysterically from his grave. No, no, wait. Those are not tears of laughter. It's sobbing. May I have another glass of Victory gin?

  5. fxkeh

    "Amazombian"

    Amazombie, surely.

  6. sitta_europea Silver badge

    Time was when nobody would have called anything "GPT" because in French it means "I have farted".

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like