Amazon to Use AI to Track Worker Distancing

But privacy activists have raised concerns about the use of AI for tracking workers.

Amazon has unveiled a new way to use artificial intelligence to address social distancing in the workplace.

The system is called Digital Assistance and uses cameras to track the whereabouts of workers in high-traffic areas.

Monitors will display workers in green circles who are separated from others by a safe distance. If they’re not, they will be circled in red.

Digital Assistance is reportedly live in just a handful of warehouses, but will be deployed to hundreds within the next week.

According to Reuters, privacy activists have raised concerns about the use of AI for tracking workers, and urge businesses to limit its use to the pandemic.

Amazon has faced scrutiny over its workplace policies amid the virus. One warehouse worker recently filed a lawsuit after she contracted COVID-19 and passed it on to a family member who later died.

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