4 ms·
Launch YC: Optifye.ai – AI performance monitoring for factory workers
- saganus 2y agoWhy was the other post flagged? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43170850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43170850
- WantonQuantum 2y agoSome thoughts as a software engineer living in a country with quite strong workers' rights laws (not the US): - Yuck. - This is capitalism and, like it or not, I personally benefit from capitalism. - When the capital comes from affluent countries and the labour comes from countries with weak labour laws, we get a bad situation where the workers are exploited. - I need to up my game on purchasing from ethical clothing brands.
- maxwell 2y agoDystopian.
- astonex 2y agoThe launch video is absolutely disgusting edit: it looks like they’ve now removed it, and yc removed their launch tweet
- melvinmelih 2y agoVideo mirror in case you missed it: https://x.com/cdolan92/status/1894216778126959027?s=46 https://x.com/cdolan92/status/1894216778126959027?s=46
- ummonk 2y agoWhen did tech people decided to turn into straight up comic book villains?
- toomuchtodo 2y agohttps://x.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538 https://x.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538
- spaceman_2020 2y agoWe were promised abundance but instead got OpTiMiZaTiOn Legitimately feel like just crashing out of this industry and taking up farming or something
- coldtrait 2y agoEver since the AI boom, I feel.
- melvinmelih 2y agoI do not understand how: 1) Someone actually thought this was a good idea 2) Someone actually built it 3) YC actually funded it
- tansan 2y ago4) Someone actually pitched the marketing idea 5) Someone actually made the video 6) Someone actually shared it with YC 7) YC thought it was a good idea to post it This went through too many layers
- infrawhispers 2y agoWhy not frame things from the perspective of rewarding good performance? I am sure this will get bought by companies looking to squeeze their workers…and I will not be surprised if this leads to worse outcomes for staff and employers in the medium to long term. The launch video was disgraceful.
- geepytee 2y ago>Why not frame things from the perspective of rewarding good performance? This guy knows marketing. Agreed it would not have been as controversial
- moconnor 2y agoIn a pipeline the slowest-performing stage determines the throughput, the fastest is irrelevant. Using humans in pipelines irrevocably sets this kind of dynamic up, sadly.
- Aushin 2y agoBecause that's not the impetus for creating it and they're not clever enough to hide it. They made it because they want to punish what they believe is the laziness of people beneath them.
- elfbargpt 2y agoI assume unions would have a problem with this right?
- moralestapia 2y agoThis is getting HUGE exposure on Xwitter right now. YC is backtracking on them and rightly so. I don't blame them, they probably pitched something relatively ok-ish; today's demo is just a disaster from every angle. Incidentally, this also shows why 2020s YC is a different beast than 2010s YC, they don't really care about your startup, they don't even really know what is it about, its just a pure numbers game at this point. Methaphorically, YC also optifye-d itself into what it is nowadays.
- bruceb 2y ago"today's demo is just a disaster from every angle." It is not. Lots of exposure. Those who complain were not customers. Those who are potential customers don't care about comments on twitter. Can argue backlash hurts YC but for the company itself probably helps in long run.
- Apocryphon 2y agoDid lots of exposure help PearAI?
- thepasswordis 2y agoThe website makes it sounds like this is just...AI sweatshop monitoring software? What the heck? https://www.optifye.ai/ https://www.optifye.ai/
- carabiner 2y agoThis is an actual panopticon?
- tansan 2y agoThis seems like a top signal to me. Some form of institution rot going on?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- xucian 2y agogood way to put it. how do you plan to get rich form this top signal? short a specific company?
- tansan 2y agoI wish I had the answer
- BladeJogger 2y agoSuccessful shorting seems to be damn near impossible in this economy. It's just too irrationally optimistic. Maybe this is changing under Trump, but most of the famous short sellers (James Chanos, Hindenburg Research) have closed shop
- mcmoor 2y agoShort the shorters?
- cute_boi 2y agoI really don't understand why someone is encouraging slavery and YC actually funded it. Day by day things are moving towards dystopia.
- carabiner 2y agoYC is funding cruise missiles: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41305736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41305736 This story was even flagged. Like wtf?
- JustTheTruth 2y ago[flagged]
- moralestapia 2y agoHi Kushal and/or Vivaan, "The world is trash" is not an excuse to make it worse, and this kind of statement only digs you a bigger hole. This is not the end of your startup, it could just be a bumpy start if you are able to find a different angle for this technology and turn the boat around. It could be a really nice story tbh, you have the whole world looking at you which is the most difficult thing! No publicity is bad publicity. But leave that attitude behind ...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kurofx 2y agoIn what world can this tech be spun in a good way? It’s over for them, at least for their startup at the minimum. The aspect of squeezing metrics out of workers is intrinsic to what they’ve built. They seem to be rich kids, so I half can’t blame them for having a disgustingly warped moral compass, but this “startup” is trash and cannot be saved. Hopefully this motivates them to actually do something positive for the world.
- moralestapia 2y ago>In what world can this tech be spun in a good way? Plenty of possibilities. We'll see! PS. What's up with all these crappy throwaway accounts? We are not discussing anything even remotely delicate, lol.
- rmdashrfv 2y agoOptifye is positioned hard as a way to make it easier for management to squeeze every drop of blood out of workers, it's pretty fucked to try to use the real issue of women's safety as a defense for this. If this had anything to do with women's safety, that video and the website would have been completely different.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- adamrezich 2y agoSure seems like a little bit of exposure to third-world conditions is making a lot of first-world people here uncomfortable.
- elfbargpt 2y agoI don't think anybody is unaware of third-world conditions. Just surprised YC is investing in tech that helps enforce those conditions directly
- NeutralCrane 2y agoThis isn’t restricted to third world countries. I’m an ML Engineer and had someone reach out to me last year about a position at a US based startup that is essentially doing the same thing as this, but for service staff in restaurants.
- tock 2y agoMoney over ethics has been the norm for a long time now. A lot of us unfortunately work at companies that actively make the world a worse place.
- ztratar 2y agoThe worst ever YC demo and company I've ever seen. Technology is supposed to make the world better. This is vile, and the script itself shows the founders do not care or understand what they are doing.
- fuckbrownpeople 2y ago[flagged]
- mellosouls 2y agoWe’re CS grads from Duke and because our families run manufacturing companies, we’ve seen more assembly lines than most industrial engineers Tl;dr; We place cameras in manufacturing lines and use computer vision to show line supervisors who’s working and who’s not in real-time. Alternative TL;DR: privileged kids turn exploitation into a dashboard feature.
- crsv 2y agoDuke is such a great fit for this story, lol.
- BladeJogger 2y agoand uhhhh... other aspects about them
- Aveng1991 2y agoThe founders merely translated existing practices into a piece of software. While the demo was a little off, the pain point is pretty valid. As a manufacturer,I have seen factories loose contracts over 20 cents, while the same goods is retailed 4X-5X margin at $85. At the end of the day factories rarely make margins on COG (Cost of Goods), but survive on the residues of efficiency. Even though volume is the game, brutal efficiency is the rule. I personally feel it’s a misplaced backlash on the founders or the factories, while the main enablers are the Big retailers. Factories are at the mercy of big retailers, their relationship dynamic akin to mob boss-henchman, where the factories simply follow the orders. Most factories practice two modes of compensation: 1. Per pc rate - Payment is directly tied to the output, more efficient. Requires skilled workers and can sometimes be a little costlier and impractical. Defects are deducted from the workers pay. 2. Monthly salary - This setup can accommodate semi skilled workers since each worker only handles one part of the whole. It’s a relatively cheaper process. However inefficiencies can easily creep in, defects can pile up which can wipe off the whole margin and ruin the factory. I don’t believe in running a sweatshop, but even well run humane factories have to battle inefficiencies all the time. The line between marginal point inefficiencies can mean canceled contracts, cancelled goods and financial losses. At the end of the day it’s the workers who have to take the brunt. The upside of efficiency is timely wages; the downside is already obvious. The upside of inefficiency is a little break for workers; the downside is job loss and unpaid wages. Hence I am not a fan of mass production esp under contract from Big retailers.
- igleria 2y ago> where the factories simply follow the orders I seem to remember some person using this argument. I think it's called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders
- CamperBob2 2y agoThat's kind of outrageous, like the common trope of comparing workers to "slaves." Lot of privilege on display here. There are still a few Holocaust survivors left. Go ask some of them how their experience compares to that of factory workers who can, ultimately, walk out the door anytime they want.
- Zigurd 2y agoTaylorism. Techbros invented Taylorism. Unironically.
- breakyerself 2y agoKill it with fire. This is disgusting. I'm a factory worker. Have been for most of the last 30 years. It's nice to know what some people in the tech industry think of us.
- cwiz 2y agoDevelopers of this will eventually end up doing factory work. I've been this path. Inevitable
- garymendel 2y agoun-fn real. the new maga normal.