GARBAGE trucks using artificial intelligence to tell people off have sparked fury as residents say it could see their private information leaked.
After a pilot program was launched in a US city, people say they have been sent “postcards” warning them about their improper recycling practices.
A US city has trialed an artificial intelligence recycling scheme[/caption]
The program in East Lansing, Michigan, uses A.I. to detect incorrect recycling[/caption]
The scheme was launched in the city of East Lansing, Michigan in September 2022, and supporters claim that it has reduced contamination in certain households by up to 23%.
In the first-of-its-kind citywide initiative, authorities compared traditional versus high-tech approaches to reducing waste.
The pilot program included an automated AI version of its “Feet on the Street” program, under which garbage workers manually inspect curbside bins and leave educational warnings when they find materials that are non-recyclable.
Over the trial period, recycling trucks were equipped with AI-powered computers and cameras trained to identify and photograph non-recyclable items in household recycling bins left on curbs.
More than 5,000 postcards were mailed out, featuring an emotive image of a family looking at a mountain of landfill.
Offending residents were then sent a geotagged photo, with everything but the item in question blurred out, in the form of a postcard telling them their mistake and giving tips.
But critics say there are privacy concerns, with personal medical or financial records potentially at risk.
“Trash is really personal,” Sarah Powazek from the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity at the University of California, Berkeley, told Bloomberg.
“Trash has a lot of sensitive information that not only could lead to identity theft, such as credit cards and financial records that people might throw out, but also about how people live their lives.”
The city has defended the 24-week pilot program, which concluded last month.
“Preliminary results show that residents who receive postcards significantly increase participation in recycling while decreasing contamination,” a city analysis read.
“Households that received a certain type of educational postcard to coach them about recyclable materials reduced contamination by 23% and set out their carts 45% more often compared to a control group,” the Ohio State University statistical analysis of the project found.
East Lansing is now exploring long-term AI technology uses on its recycling trucks.
Speaking at the Bloomberg 2024 CityLab in Mexico City last week, the city’s environmental sustainability and resiliency manager Cliff Walls presented the campaign to other urban experts from around the world.
“People are trying to do the right thing, but education is tough to get your hands on when all the solutions and rules for recycling are hyperlocal,” he said.
He addressed the privacy concerns of critics at the summit, saying the city ensured transparency with residents about the scheme, and vetted AI companies to make sure they are not selling information to third parties.
Walls said that the most common mistakes made by residents were the recycling of bagged material, polystyrene, and plastic film.
He told East Lansing Info, “Mistakes are seen less than 0.5% of the time.
“Also, if the computer wasn’t certain of the source or address of the contaminants, no postcard was mailed.”
A similar pilot scheme was launched in the Canadian city of Leduc last year, aiming to keep non-organic materials out of municipal compost carts.
