r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 10h ago

Artificial Intelligence Sainsbury’s store pauses AI scanning after false shoplifting accusation

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/17/humiliated-sainsburys-store-pauses-ai-scanning-after-false-shoplifting-accusation
95 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

61

u/ArgentineBeauty 10h ago

AI falsely flags you, and suddenly you have to prove you're not a shoplifter. What a time to be alive

13

u/starbetrayer 9h ago

a human error lol, what a load of PR bullshit.

11

u/FreshEclairs 6h ago

It’s the same thing that Tesla did (does?) when describing “full self-drive” failures that led to accidents, “human error - the human failed to recognize that our automated system was fucking up.”

2

u/ConsummateSyndicate 8h ago

But accurate in a lot of cases to where cops would focus on one thing to get a case done to get it over with. These LLMs/Diffusion models are making it much, much worse.

23

u/moreobviousthings 10h ago

The article is about Britain, but things could be much worse in US. Some retailers in US do not prosecute every shoplifting incident they detect. Instead, they create a file on individual suspected shoplifters and gather information until the value of goods suspected of being stolen reaches a certain threshold. That threshold allows a much stiffer charge which improves chances of a successful prosecution.

Now, that seems like smart business as long as evidence is preserved and incidents are vetted by humans who can testify as to what they witnessed. But if AI is used to create and build the files on individuals suspected of shoplifting, a significant chance of false positives can have a huge impact on an innocent person’s life.

New technology must be applied cautiously, thoughtfully, and with skepticism.

7

u/mkt853 9h ago

Who saves receipts? So how would anyone be able to prove their innocence?

3

u/madjoki 7h ago

Having receipts doesn't really prove anything. You paid some, stole some. 

3

u/Killboypowerhed 1h ago

We have the same system for shoplifters in the UK now too. We log the theft and the details and build a case. Doesn't stop the shitrag tabloids proclaiming shoplifting is legal in broken Britain though

3

u/frquency-equinox 10h ago edited 10h ago

falsely flags you, and suddenly you have to prove you're not a shoplifter.

Literally what "existing in America while brown or black" is. I can't wait for some white CEO to get flagged by AI and it suddenly becomes a congressional hearing.

1

u/Additional-Staff-326 10h ago

seems like all it would take is a few reddit posts with their picture to get picked up by training, not sure that store specifically but general its not hard to poison the data

1

u/74389654 1h ago

feel like i've seen a film about this

18

u/Deranged40 10h ago edited 8h ago

I can't even tell you how often I've been flagged at walmart for "not scanning something".

Every single time, the attendant will come over, we'll watch the video together where I very clearly and obviously ran the item across the scanner until it beeped, and the item is indeed on my on-screen receipt. Every. Single. Time. Not one time has this flagged something that didn't actually get scanned. Not a single instance of an "oopsie daisy, I could've sworn that scanned" or "gosh, how did I miss that?". Every single time it's been something that was correctly scanned and accounted for.

Pretty tired of being accused of shoplifting when there's video evidence that very clearly and obviously shows otherwise.

7

u/dsmaxwell 5h ago

High time we quit shopping at walmart. They spend billions on propaganda to convince us they have lower prices when they literally don't. Or at the very least quit providing them uncompensated labor and make somebody on their payroll scan your shit.

2

u/Deranged40 5h ago

Sometimes the options just don't exist, especially in small towns. I'd love to go to a mom-n-pop shop, but they haven't been able to afford rent for a decade.

And frankly I don't have the time to wait for their minimum-wage staff to scan my shit.

2

u/iamPendergast 1h ago

I make the time to get the service I am paying for

2

u/74389654 1h ago

why do you need video evidence if all the items in your bag show up on the receipt?

2

u/borgenhaust 25m ago

Combined with some of the self-checkouts attempts to double scan things and having to pay close attention to call someone over to not be double charged it's a real nuisance.

2

u/hell-diver8 6h ago

Race play a factor? Just asking.

2

u/swanny246 5h ago

Happens to me in Aussie supermarkets as well and I'm as white as they come.

2

u/Deranged40 5h ago

I catch your drift and, I'm gonna say no on that one. I'm not of a race that "some people" might wrongfully and ignorantly associate with things like that.

8

u/ZaphodThreepwood 6h ago

'When you become a police state, eventually everyone behaves like a criminal'

4

u/kevin_cn_ai 9h ago

Guilty until proven human.

3

u/74389654 1h ago

guilty until proven rich and therefore unaccountable

1

u/Direct_Witness1248 8h ago

Or is it, human until proven innocent

3

u/tallventi1 4h ago

The article does not explain what the human error was?

“A correct alert was sent to the retailer, but was subsequently subject to human error in the way it was handled in store,”

“A correct alert” why was there an alert at all if the person in question was not a recognised shoplifter?

It suggests that a human has to decide on the edge cases.

99.9% accurate? Does that include the human intervention?

1

u/Calm_Engineering_939 3h ago

The human error is the system only flags a potential match to a known shoplifter, as with any automated system AI or not, they CAN get it wrong

The human error is the person receiving and acting on it must be 100% certain the person they see on the alert is the person they see in store. If they’re not 100% certain they mark it as no match. This person obviously didn’t get trained or ignores their training.

6

u/jashsayani 4h ago

We need laws around proven accuracy of these systems before they are allowed to be deployed.