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The latest addition to the category "The Dystopian Future is Now" is a system that aims to help bartenders track their customers through facial recognition and AI.
There is just a teenager problem: bartenders do not really care.
The British company DataSparQ announced Thursday the launch of the "A.I. Bar". It uses cameras and sensors to place people who come to the bar in line. it's like a system "take a number" numerically, but based on facial recognition.
People can see where they are by displaying themselves on a screen (with a number above their head, describing their location in the line). Bartenders will know who to serve by consulting a tablet containing photos of all people, in order of priority. It is also supposed to help bartenders determine the identity of the people to be controlled.
DataSparQ recently tested the system in a London bar. Here is a video showing how it works.
DataSparQ positions the facial recognition queue system as a win-win. He says that customers will have less time waiting and that bars are about to earn more money with faster service. Customers, supposedly, hate waiting for drinks online. But the bartenders think that artificial intelligence makes the resolutely human molehill a problematic technological mountain.
"I just do not see what this kind of technology would do at a distance to mitigate all the supposed badumptions about service delays that people have," said Asif Rizvi, a Brooklyn bartender at The Breakers. "At best, it's useless, at worst it's a further sign of the imminent apocalypse of AI."
Mashable has been talking to four bartenders in New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas about their impressions of the queuing system. Here is what they think about the possibility of getting some help from an AI friend.
"We know what's going on"
As a 5-foot-1 woman, it happened to me to wonder if my bartender knew I was here. The short answer is yes, so most of the bartenders I spoke to did not understand at all the basic need for this type of system.
"Very good bartenders are really good at their own facial recognition algorithm, which is common sense," said Rob Ready, co-owner of the SF Bar, Piano Fight.
Essentially, the problem we're trying to solve is that people have a hard time getting served in a fair and timely order.
"The tacit badumption for at least how they understand it is that bartenders have no idea what they are doing and do not know how to handle that sort of thing," Rizvi said. "We know what's going on, we see everything."
If the value proposition of the product is to be believed, bartenders, apparently, have trouble keeping track of who has arrived when and who needs a drink. According to the bartenders, this is one of the challenges of being a bartender, but not insurmountable. In fact, being able to handle this is one of the reasons a bartender succeeds in his work.
"The best bartenders are very present and know what is happening in their environment," said Olivia Hu, the co-owner of Oldtimers in Bushwick.
The Breakers, where Rizvi works, is one of those hot spots of the Brooklyn weekend, bringing together many spectators and everyone. He says the service is tough, but all bartenders have their habits and workflow that make them, you know, qualified for their jobs.
"We are not computers, obviously, and I guess that's a bit of the problem here," Rizvi said. "But we have a usual check of things in some orders that will eventually give an average to everyone being treated equally."
In short: Calm down, the bartender will contact you.
"Maybe it could work in a culture without tipping"
The person for whom this system seems designed is, again, a person who has the impression of having trouble being served. But there is a simple solution to this problem, which does not take money in the pockets of your hard bartender: the tip.
"These are the people who do not mind the bartenders who tend to be forgotten at the bar," said Daniel Keaveney, a veteran bartender at the Las Vegas casino who is currently working at the restaurant's Esther's Kitchen. Downtown Las Vegas.
Keaveney insisted that discretion in choosing the service is an integral part of a bartender's job, especially in a place like Las Vegas. The automation of the service line would simply not work in a place where there is a "switch culture" where big players and good rockers are waiting for service, pronto – and where bartenders also rely on these tips.
Keaveney and the other bartenders have recognized that the culture of tipping in Europe, from where this product comes, is very different.
"Maybe it could work in a culture without tipping," Keaveney said.
But in a place like Vegas, or even Bushwick, this system would change the way bartenders target customers, especially the most loyal. It is, however, possible that an allegedly fair service orchestrated by AI provide more advice from satisfied customers, but the bartenders I spoke to did not express it.
Moreover, the discretion in the service does not only concern tips.
"It's a very human interaction"
There is a sacred relationship between a bartender and a client, a relationship that is not always necessarily financial. An AI would not understand that.
"I understand the nuances of serving alcohol," Hu added. "It's a very human interaction."
Bartenders cultivate regulars by having conversations. Or, bartenders can pay for drinks like justice, reward those who behave well, while giving a lesson to these morons. It is also up to the bartenders to ensure the safety of their customers. In the end, bartenders believe that an AI system would prevent all of this.
"A lot of the bars are social interaction," Ready said. "If you come into a bar and you're a dick for the bartender, then, yes, it may take them a little longer to serve you next time." And that's good because it teaches people not to be bads to professionals in the service sector. "
Bartenders also use their personal judgment to decide whether or not to give another drink to someone who is intoxicated. Maybe an AI could possibly read that. But at the moment, a queuing system may complicate the refusal process too much if it insists on being served because its numbers are increasing.
"It's one of the bartender's main responsibilities to know when a person could hurt himself drinking alcohol," Hu said. "It's difficult for a computer to make this call."
"You are trying to apply the data and technology in a very human context," said Ready. "That's what does not seem to go."
"I would be scared"
DataSparQ said it interviewed 2,000 people to tell them that one of the reasons people are leaving bars is that they do not like queuing. But Ready thinks that a queue is nothing compared to a machine that captures your biometric data and broadcasts it in plain view.
"I'm wondering if you've been asked a question: if you saw yourself in a live video behind the bar and you were scrubbing your face and recognizing your emotions, what would be the reasons you would leave this bar?" Requested loan, uh, hypothetically. "I would be scared."
Cities, countries, public and private spaces are wondering if and how to introduce facial recognition. These bartenders thought that a watering point was not a good place to start.
"There is a question of privacy in a bar, you are supposed to feel safe in a bar," Keaveney said. "Maybe I do not want to be seen in this bar like that, maybe I'm trying to hide myself a bit."
For bartenders, making an automated and transparent service system for customers does not seem worthwhile to give your valuable biometric data.
"It looks like nothing more than a system of number-making to glorify, and I do not see why he has to collect your data to do it," Rizvi said.
"You repair something that is not really broken"
The bartenders were especially taken aback by the way the system would really help them.
"There is never a situation where the bar is busy because there are a lot of people out there, and the solution is" some help these bartenders with facial recognition technology "," said Rizvi. .
They first wondered about the fact that adding the extra step of consulting a tablet would allow them to serve more people, as the company claims in its press release. Do not have to check a tablet and match a face to a line item of a tablet would eventually take longer?
"They are trying to solve a problem by creating a bigger problem," said Ready.
Then, one of the problems she claims to solve is that of people pushing, jostling and queuing. But the bartenders – watchful observers of human nature – said that customers would surely find a way to outsmart the system (for example, by putting themselves first in the queue).
Finally, if someone is really bothered by waiting for a drink, he can still … go to another bar.
"If you are in a busy bar, there will be a lot of people," said Rizvi. "If you do not like it, go to another bar, there will always be one."
Most of the time, the bartenders did not see the necessity of the product. Yes, the bars are busy. But it's the bartender's job to handle that, and the client's job is to trust that person – and treat it well – to keep the bar in a functional and very human place.
"It's like I feel like it's a sophisticated use of technology to solve problems that did not exist," Ready said.
Or, to use Rizvi's words, "you repair something that is not really broken".
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