Amazon Pretends to Care About Workers While Putting AI In Charge Of Judging Them

Imagine being a driver for Amazon Delivery and being penalized on your paycheck for “unsafe driving” every time another driver cuts you off in traffic. That’s just one of the reported problems arising from the new AI cameras that Amazon has now installed in half of their branded delivery vans in partnership with a brand that even sounds like a movie villain company: Netradyne. This is a predictable side effect of putting AI in charge of judging human behavior, and Amazon seems unconcerned with the implications.

Drivers are required to sign consent forms to release their biometric data and report regularly being penalized for behaviors such as looking at a side mirror or stopping ahead of a stop sign at a blind intersection. In theory, this live tracking can prevent accidents before they happen and encourage safer driving. In reality, the tech seems to have been implemented with a complete disregard for the humans who interact with it. One driver disturbingly describes the verbal alerts as a “dark robotic voice that shouts at me.”

The brand recently spent millions launching an advertising campaign about how much they care about their workers. Based on the lack of empathy in how this initiative was rolled out, it’s hard to take that message seriously. Brands, like people, should be judged based on their actions ... not the stories they pay to broadcast to the world.