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A demo from Optifye.ai , a appendage of Y Combinator ’s current cohort , sparked a social medium recoil that end up with YC delete it off its socials .
Optifye say it ’s building software system to help factory owners know who ’s ferment — and who is n’t — in “ real - prison term ” thanks to AI - powered surety camera it places on assemblage lines , concord toits YC visibility .
On Monday , YC post anOptifyedemo videoon X(and onLinkedIn ) , according to a snapshot saved by TechCrunch .
The videoshows Optifye co - beginner Kushal Mohta acting as the boss of a garment factory , calling a supervisor — in reality his co - father Vivaan Baid — about a low - performing actor acknowledge only as “ Number 17 . ”
“ Hey Number 17 , what ’s going on man ? You ’re in the red , ” Baid asks the worker , who responds that he ’s been work all day .
“ Working all day ? You have n’t strike your hourly output even once and you had 11.4 % efficiency . This is really bad , ” Baid counter .
After agree Optifye ’s splasher , the supervisor looks at the output of “ bit 17 ” for 15 days , decides that the proletarian has been underperforming and calls the proletarian out on it .
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“ Rough Clarence Day ? More like a jolting month , ” he aver .
The clip was heavily criticized on X , where @VCBragscalled it“sweatshops - as - a - service ” andanotherdeemed it “ data processor sight sweatshop software package . ” It alsosparked criticismon Y Combinator ’s own link share-out site Hacker News .
Not everyone was vital , though . Eoghan McCabe , the chief operating officer of customer accompaniment startup Intercom , posted thatanyone complaining good stop buying products made in China and India .
Indeed , it ’s not too hard to notice tech companionship in Chinatoutinga “ sleep sleuthing ” camera that use computer vision to recognise sleeping worker , for example .
Either direction , YC ended up edit the demo video from its mixer , but not before it wassavedbyseveralaccounts .
The YC deleted television for sweatshop inauguration Optifyepic.twitter.com/vCJvm2HTce
Neither YC nor Optifye.ai reply to a petition for comment .
The television ’s potential unintended virality showcases growing anxieties over the climb of AI , especially in the workplace .
Most Americans oppose using AI to pass over worker ’ desk metre , apparent movement , and computer use , a Pew pollfound in 2023 . This is a section of surveillance products sometimescalled “ bossware . ”
That has n’t stopped VCs from funding the infinite , though . unseeable AI , for object lesson , bring up $ 15 million in 2022to stick worker - monitoring cameras in manufacturing plant , too .
