Japan Eateries to Deploy AI Cameras in Fight Against ‘Sushi Terrorism’

Japanese sushi restaurant chain deploys artificial intelligence to spot dishes that have been doctored, Nikkei Asia reports(Opens in a new window).

The effort comes after a series of social media videos showing so-called “sushi terrorism”, with a clip(Opens in a new window) showing a customer licking his finger before touching sushi passing on the conveyor belt which was intended for another customer.

Kara Sushi reportedly plans to upgrade existing cameras with artificial intelligence software by early March so that employees are alerted to any instances of “sushi terrorism”. The cameras are currently counting the plates taken by customers so that the bill can be adjusted as the plates are removed from the conveyor belt.

Talk to CNN(Opens in a new window), a spokesperson for the sushi chain said, “We want to deploy our AI-driven cameras to monitor whether customers put the sushi they picked up with their hands back on the plates. We are confident that we will be able to upgrade the systems we already have in place to deal with this type of behavior. »

These types of behaviors have included unruly customers add wasabi(Opens in a new window) passing sushi, licking the spoon off a container of green tea powder, and licking the top of a bottle of soy sauce and the rim of a cup of tea at Sushiro, another chain of sushi restaurants in Japan. A video(Opens in a new window) of the soy sauce and teacup licking incident has been viewed almost 100 million times on Twitter.

According Engadget(Opens in a new window), the affected restaurant replaced all soy sauce bottles and cleaned every cup. And in an effort to prevent customers from participating in these unpleasant acts, Food & Life, which operates Sushiro, has deployed transparent acrylic sheets that fit between the belt and the seats and prevent plates from being touched.

The sushi chain also has limited plates sent only to those customers have ordered.