[Dante]

Sainsbury's, a supermarket store in the UK, is apparently using an intelligent dispatcher.

I noticed it when chatting to a neighbor of mine, she's a manager there and all the higher tier staff have handheld radios.

"Bev report to cake isle, suspiscious customer"

the old 6kh emotionless voice was a big giveaway.

If any of you listen out for the voice, perhaps you could identify more of it's commands?


(this wasnt over the tannoy, but over the handheld radios, no idea why it isnt over the tannoy)

[Maviarab]

Not sure I follow here Dante...

So its an artificial voice...on the hand hand radio?

[Art]

OK... for us non-Brits a tannoy is a PA (public address) system - powered speakers.

So what triggered the "intelligent agent" or alerted it to the fact that there was trouble in the cake aisle?
Or does the store simply have someone watching various monitors then press the appropriate button(s)
to summon the artificial speech?

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger, Danger, there's a syrup spill in aisle 6!!

Funny stuff!!

Here we have lots of little blackened globes and half globes in the ceiling ever watching (well most of us
are conditioned to "think" the powers that be are watching us. We're all programmed! I tell ya!! It's a plot!!

[Dante]

No idea, it could be a staff member triggered it, prefering to remain anonymous, or it could acutally gauge it itself (though I consider this unlikely considering the quailty of the voice)

I've half a mind to go in there and get it saying The Cake is a Lie!

[Freddy]

So we don't know if this an AI system at all yet then ?  Someone was saying about a system that could spot suspicious behaviour previously, maybe it's something like that.  Mainly it was things like loitering and running.  But then they could be waiting for a lift or running to catch a bus.  I just can't see what good AI will do in this situation, why not just employ a security guard - I used to be one actually for a time myself.

Hmm, now I think about it more I seem to remember that it was a system that alerted a human to possible suspicious activity - so the final choice is made by a human, so what we might have is a AI/human collaboration working in Sainsbury's.  With the increasing number of CCTV cameras I think they developed it to make the job easier.

[Dante]

Bit odd, I know, it's possible it's autonomous/semi-autonomous...but anyway, should you find yourself in Sainsbury's, keep your ears open.