A Japanese startup has developed AI software that it says can catch shoplifters in the act — and alert staff members so they can swoop in to prevent pilferage. - NBCNewsMACH
has been used to combat retail shrinkage. Retailers have used AI to detect refund fraud and employee theft. And Japanese communications giant NTT East made headlines last summer with AI Guardsman, a camera that uses technology similar to Vaakeye’s to analyze shoppers’ body language for signs of possible theft. AI Guardsman’s developers said the camera cut shoplifting losses by 40 percent.
Chelsea Binns, an assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said the Vaakeye system “appears to show great promise for loss prevention.” But, she added, retailers must weigh the costs and benefits of surveillance. “If regular customers are afraid to enter stores because they don’t like the idea of being tracked, this could potentially hurt retail sales,” she said.tend to be only as good as the data used to train them.
“You have to be sure you have enough information,” he said. “Otherwise, the algorithm might be extracting a certain bias."Jerome Williams, a professor and senior administrator at Rutgers University’s Newark campus, has written extensively on race and retail environments.
Nell Watson, a Belgium-based engineer who speaks widely about machine learning, agreed that behavior is an essential part of the equation. “It may be argued that you could engineer a system which is perhaps even less biased than a given human being, because human beings have their own impressions about people,” she said. But, she added, “it really depends on how well audited the algorithms are by independent experts in this kind of area.
Audited or not, Vaakeye is already out in the world. Tanaka said the system had been installed in about 50 stores in the Tokyo area and would be soon be available more widely in Japan.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
AI Pioneer Fei-Fei Li on Building Benevolent MachinesThe co-director of the new Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence says it is a “critical time” for social scientists and humanists to get involved in AI.
Read more »
Auditing Amazon's 'Rekognition' A.I. Could Remove BiasE-commerce giant Amazon is finally stepping up efforts to audit its A.I. facial Rekognition tool that has been called out for built in bias. They plan to work with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop standardized tests around this issue and improve accuracy.
Read more »
Why AI is still terrible at spotting violence onlineArtificial intelligence can identify people in pictures, find the next TV series you should binge watch on Netflix, and even drive a car.
Read more »
About face: One woman’s quest to make AI less biased.NBCNewsBETTER: Joy Buolamwini, Founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, found AI programs used for facial recognition can be biased against darker skin tones and against women. She tells NBCNews why it matters and what can be done.
Read more »
China Gains on U.S. in Highly Cited AI ResearchChina is rapidly gaining ground on the U.S. in artificial-intelligence research, according to a new report, heightening Beijing’s challenge to its strategic rival in a field deemed critical by the Trump administration.
Read more »
Preparing Your Workforce For The AI RevolutionArtificial intelligence (AI) represents great promise for achieving the vision of an intelligent enterprise—from predicting customer behavior to managing large-scale production systems.
Read more »
Humanity AIInnovations in artificial intelligence across three giant industries are unlocking major potential to reshape the world and improve our lives.
Read more »
Facebook readies AI tech to combat 'revenge porn'Facebook Inc said on Friday it would use artificial intelligence to combat the s...
Read more »