When AI Can't Replace a Worker, It Watches Them Instead

This story is part of a collection of pieces on how we work today, from video conferencing to using productivity apps for off-label purposes to Silicon Valley culture. When Tony Huffman stepped away from the production line at the Denso auto part factory in Battle Creek, Michigan, to talk with WIRED earlier this month, the workers he supervised were still being watched--but not by a human. A camera over each station captured workers' movements as they assembled parts for auto heat-management systems. The video was piped into machine-learning software made by a startup called Drishti, which watched workers' movements and calculated how long each person took to complete their work. "In the past, we would take a line that was struggling and bring a bunch of people down with stopwatches to try and make it better," Huffman says--at least for problems that seemed serious enough to justify the time and expense.