Starbucks and other major corporations like Walmart and T-Mobile are using artificial intelligence to spy on employees and read their messages, it has been learned.
When using chat software like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or Slack, startup AI company Aware has been recruited to monitor and tattle on its users. Delta Air Lines, Chevron, Nestle, and AstraZeneca have also been reported to be using the AI monitoring service.
While it is standard practice to assume that if an employee is using company software or hardware their work and emails can be monitored, there has always been a modicum of doubt that perhaps not everything is being looked at all the time. However, with the installation of an AI system to monitor and scan every page and keystroke, the presence of a technological super-nanny is disturbing to many. Others, however, seem comfortable with it and resigned to the idea of their everyday human liberties being curtailed.
In 2023, AI finally made its big splash on the public stage with the unveiling of Chat GPT, an AI software that can answer questions and even write small essays given the right parameters. Elon Musk’s social media company X has been following close behind with their own AI software, Grok.
Although the emergence of AI technology is all but inevitable, Musk has expressed the need for an abundance of caution in its creation, as it has been shown to express the biases of its creators. This has caused a number of scandals, most recently with portraying the Founding Fathers as any race except of European descent.
The political agendas of large corporations and their ability to influence the public has long been an area of great concern. Now that these powerful companies are obtaining the advances of AI technologies, the potential for unethical use has never been greater. Sounding the alarm on this issue again is Elon Musk, who has put a spotlight on Microsoft’s use of AI when signing up for an account, thus giving the left-leaning company AI access to users’ laptops.
But since they now require that you use their services just to use your computer, @Microsoft can effectively shut off your computer! https://t.co/jr8gPXotR9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 25, 2024
With companies gaining omniscient AI capabilities to spy on users and employees, the threats to individual freedoms are very real. Censorship by companies like Meta and Twitter have been notorious, leading to power struggles between those who believe in free speech and those who wish to use their power to dominate and control. While certain unethical uses may currently be legal, the landscape of liberty in the United States and the entire world is being shaped by how corporations and governments are choosing to use these incredible new technologies.
