AI-driven booze bouncers can ID you with face scan Good news for older boozehounds – the UK government plans to inject age estimation AI into supermarket alcohol sales. This means that rather than standing in front of a self-service till twiddling your thumbs waiting for a member of staff to make you feel old, the face-scanning AI will wave it through automatically. It's not …
I guess it won't be long before the supermarkets are networked with government databases so suspected miscreants can be welcomed as they step out of the store by armed police.
Insert something about "thinking of the children", "drugs", "terrorists", "immigrants" or whatever here ...
Just wait until data from the NHS is incorporated. The robo-till won't allow you to buy that ice cream because your blood sugar was too high during your last exam. Or, you won't be able to buy those eggs because your cholesterol was too high on your last round of blood tests.
I can see it now: Sneaking late at night down some back alleys trying to score some chocolate bars, or some fresh eggs, etc. The future is looking really bleak.
I used to think I would be long dead before things got really bad. Now, I'm getting very worried... God help the youngsters of today. What a dystopian future they have ahead of them!
"The robo-till won't allow you to buy that ice cream because your blood sugar was too high during your last exam"
I wrote a short story on these lines in the very early 90s, although the scenario was being refused a hamburger at a fast food stall, then getting arrested for attempting to buy it.
One presumes the mugshots are deleted immediately after the analysis has been done - or are they kept for a period of time 'to be verified if required' or 'to improve the AI model'?
I think we should be told.
There's also a huge potential for scope-creep here: for now, it's used to check ages when you buy alcohol. However, it makes sense for the retailer to use it for all purchases so they can better understand the profile of its customer base. All that lovely extra data!
Yep, and if you use your Nectar / Clubcard to avoid the new mug's tax (i mean, to get exclusive discounts) then your face could be linked to your identity and purchase history, so get ready for "minority report"-style face-scanning billboards trying to flog piles cream whenever you walk past
Last time I was in clucbcardland* for something the discounter across the road doesn't stock I mentally added up the no-card price hike difference for an average shop, it was about £15, that's far more than the difference between them and the discounter total cost.
*Pre xmas for flan cases, Yes I could faff about using ready roll or make it from scratch but it's not worth the time/cost saving.
My local Morrisons has just done a significant refit, replacing all but a handful (at most 6) of their proper checkouts with a whole fleet of extra self service checkouts.
At most, 2 of the proper checkouts are ever open, leading to long queues while the majority of the self service checkouts stand idle under the beady eye of a supervisor with very little to do.
Admittedly, the new freezers and chillers were badly needed, but the disruption caused by moving practically every product they stock to a new location in the store, added to the longer waits at the checkout, is not doing much for customer satisfaction. Particularly since they still manage to be out of stock on several (different) items every time I visit. Perhaps improve your inventory management instead of buggering about with the checkouts and pissing off customers and staff alike?
Can't help wondering if the new self service checkouts are geared up for this age guesstimation wheeze. If so, one less reason to use them, not that I ever do.
Yup, my local Morrisons has done the same, with the result that I now use the store significantly less than before. The staff tell me I'm far from the only one.
When the terminals were first installed they paid a member of staff to wander up and down the queues for the real checkouts, attempting to harrass shoppers into using the new self-service terminals.
On one visit I noticed a shopper in the next queue getting visibly agitated until she was able to place her shopping on the conveyor belt, at which point she heaved a visible sigh of relief and said "Now they can't come and get me."
I miss the days when the business / consumer relationship was mutually beneficial, not outright adversarial.
Morrisons are in a mess because they were bought out by a private equity house who thought grocery retail was really easy, and saddled the business with a big slug of expensive debt. Having found it surprisingly hard, they've done dumb stuff like all those self checkouts and fewer staff thinking that would cut costs but not revenue.
Mind you there's possibly some hope, they've recently appointed a former CEO of Carrefour to try and sort it out, so we might seem some different thinking.
I joke with the cashiers these days that they don't ask for my ID. I say it with a smile and I do get very annoyed with the local shop that makes their staff ID everybody even when it's extremely obvious, as it is in my case, that I am more than old enough to purchase anything they sell.
Oh they'll just go buy a large bottle of flavor extract.
Most of them are around 180 proof and require no ID.
Or they will steal it.
Once you try to pay for it and are turned down it doesn't feel the same as other stealing under the insults of age discrimination.
You insult someone directly enough times and they stop caring about what you think of them as a result.
Same is true of teenagers viewing themselves being treated in a discriminatory fashion.
Everyone enjoys giving their oppressor a failed expectation.
They are systematically oppressed, even if it's a socially justified oppression. And so all the downsides and reactant expressions of the oppressed come into play.
Quote: "....Cameras at self-service checkouts take three seconds to scan the buyer's face ....."
Yes.........but Tesco don't sell drugs or zombie knives!
I think ALL RETAILERS (both main street shops and internet vendors) need to implement this technology IMMEDIATELY......................................
........................of course, this will mean that China GDP will go up (the technology), and UK GDP will go down (lower retail sales).
But we will all benefit...........less alcoholism, fewer zombie knives.........and a faster descent into third world status!!!!
Thank you, Rishi!!
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