Sainsbury's to make major change in 150 stores
2026-07-02
Mirror
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Sainsbury's is expanding its use of AI-powered facial recognition technology, Facewatch, to 150 UK stores to deter repeat offenders. However, the system led to the wrongful ejection of an innocent customer due to misidentification, raising concerns about privacy, rights violations, and the risks of AI errors in public surveillance.[AI generated]
Why's our monitor labelling this an incident or hazard?
The article explicitly mentions the use of an AI system (Facewatch) that uses facial recognition to identify individuals with a history of violence or theft. The system's outputs have directly led to harm, as evidenced by the misidentification and wrongful ejection of an innocent customer, causing mental and reputational harm. This is a clear example of harm to a person caused by the AI system's malfunction or error. Although the system aims to reduce crime, the realized harm from misidentification and the resulting public humiliation meets the criteria for an AI Incident. The presence of human review does not negate the AI's role in causing harm. Hence, the event is classified as an AI Incident.[AI generated]