Nothing about YC seems to imply they care about worker conditions…
Not saying I support this product, the demo is some horrific soulless behavior, but I’m not surprised either.
Watching that video made me wonder whether I should even feel comfortable visiting HN.
What even is the the point of VC vetting if companies like this make it through?
Even "Taylorism" wasn't this bad...it at least tried to analyze conditions that were constraining worker productivity. This just measures output and manages by pressure and belittlement.
These guys spent a lot of effort making a really great implementation of sweatshop software. These two privileged kids really thought it was a great idea and honestly didn't think there was anything wrong about this at all. Objectively they did a great job from a technological perspective.
The fact it didn't cross their minds that maybe this is a bad idea to release in the US really shows the cultural difference between the West and other countries like India. There are plenty of things wrong with the US but blatant treating of lesser-privileged people like animals is something that isn't well tolerated here.
AI enforced slavery. I remember reading a short story where workers get instructions from an AI constantly after starting out as work assistance. Don't remember the details.
Why not call it Panoptify.
(In reference to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon )
Aside from the mildly disturbing tone of the video, I thought it was amusing/interesting that both of them were born into families that owned factories and got into Duke. What a world of people that get into YC.
Not gonna lie the tone of that product pitch sounded straight out of a certain mobile game ad.
What do you mean you’ve been working all day? I've got over 500 million power in “Rise of Kingdoms” and
My win-win-ism: "Helping employees meet their full potential!"
I really hope that this was just a crappy mockup that the founders didn't spend any actual time on.
Because if it is a fully fledged product, I'm not sure what that says about the many people at YC and elsewhere that gave it a pass. Seriously wtf material.
It’s not a cultural thing. It happens here too. Someone created something like this to track strawberry pickers and their ‘productivity’.
Remember they are not even paid minimum wage by the hour. They are paid by how many punnets they pick. And this founder thought it was a great idea.
American Ag is more exploitative than any third world/developing country because the really desperate work here. It is sorely in need of automation.
Nobody wants to actually invest in Ag automation..not really…there is a lot of BS floating but everything grown locally and on our shelves relies on low paid manual labour.
I wish.. so very much..that Americans see how their food is grown.
Anyone who would fund or build this is, in my mind, taxonomically evil. Maybe not irretrievably so, but YC would need to do a lot of work in my mind to not be "that form that believes the panopticon and dehumanization is good."
This isn't just run of the mill capitalism bad, this is truly exceptionally vile and staining.
2025 tech industry try not to be the bad guys in a dystopian Sci-Fi story
Challenge: Impossible
so, we don't yet have AI good enough to do real work, but we do have AI good enough to punish people for not doing work.
We need an alternative platform
Will likely be bought by Amazon. Looks like a good fit for their warehouse work "culture".
This is why it is no longer safe to make the most dangerous satire.
Life imitates art, https://theyesmen.org/project/finland
It is interesting to me that people seem to believe that were it not for this software, no one would ever complain at workers who are, or who are though to be, slacking. As though that concept was invented by the software.
In reality this sounds to me like a play to eliminate the manager jobs, not to materially change working conditions for the rank and file, who are monitored for output one way or another, even in Western countries. Nobody employs workers unconditionally and for life.
If you are going to be funding boss spyware at least have the guts to face the backlash
Some discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43170850
Holy shit, this is pure evil.
”Optifye says it’s building software to help factory owners know who’s working — and who isn’t — in “real-time” thanks to AI-powered security cameras it places on assembly lines, according to its YC profile.”
"At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from the classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus"
The Luddites were right. We need to learn from them to stop these kinds of practices in the cradle.
the lashings will continue until morale improves
A startup looking to act as the equivalent of overseers on a plantation in 19th century is very representative of the American neoliberal shithole we live in.
A truly disgusting display by everyone involved. Only a sad, sorry person would ever consider using technology like this.
Did someone at YC watch this and think "wow, I'm in!"? lol.
This kind of naive focus on technology is dehumanizing.
What are Universities doing to curb this?
That's absolutely insane
I'm confused, what's so bad about measuring worker productivity?
I wouldn't be surprised if the startup asked YC to pull the Launch after the backlash, and I would be surprised if HN was resistant to doing that. Unlike most of what runs on HN, Launch HNs (and YC company job posts) are purely a benefit for YC companies.
I wouldn't bring this particular product to market. But I think people have weird ideas about the level of intentionality that exists inside of YC with respect to its portfolio companies.
Relative to an ordinary VC fund, YC admits absurd numbers of companies every year (always has!). It deliberately admits companies that are nothing but pairs of impressive founders and an idea. Those teams get some office hours advice from some subset of YC partners, but are left alone to build their companies --- YC takes a small amount of equity, nothing resembling control. By the time Demo Day or "Launch HN" happens, many of those companies are working on totally different things from their applications.
I don't really understand why anyone would expect YC to keep a durable record of a Launch post that was working against the startup that put it together. They're not a journalism outlet, and it looks like journalism did just fine keeping a record of what happened here.
this is just surveillance with python machine learning noo??
seems like bad business since the endgame was full automation robot factory
I'm very glad to live in a country where something like this would be considered blatantly illegal.
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