An AI workflow tracker shouldn't evoke outrage

An artificial intelligence (AI) system designed to monitor workflows and detect inefficient parts has been attracting flak online.

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Developed by Optifye.Ai, a member of startup accelerator Y Combinator's current crop of Unicorn foals (as hoped), this software alerts managers to what's slowing operations down. To advertise it, Y Combinator put out a video clip that shows the startup's co-founders Vivaan Baid and Kushal Mohta role-playing a manager and shop-floor supervisor who spot a laggard on the assembly line, thanks to AI-enabled cameras and computer-vision software, and pull him up. The worker says he's having a bad day, but the duo look at his work-log on a screen and tell him it's more like he's having a bad month. The ad triggered protests of "modern slavery" and Y Combinator took the clip off its feed. But then, what goes online tends to stay online. Grabs of it have surfaced elsewhere, only to generate more howls of protest. Why this should be is a good question. Long before AI, foremen and supervisors have been monitoring shop-floor workflow and hauling up those who slow everybody else down by their indiv