Opinion: Restaurants are using AI to listen in on social media. They want to know how you are feeling

You probably don’t know it yet, but you’ve got some new social media followers. And they’re very interested in how you’re feeling right this instant.

Chick-fil-A recently deployed a new artificial intelligence-based system to monitor millions of social media accounts for food safety issues at its 2,400-plus locations nationwide. The company’s custom algorithm tracks troublesome health mentions around its restaurants, listening in on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms for “puke,” “got sick” and similar targeted keywords that could indicate a potential outbreak of foodborne illness.

It’s similar to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s to identify potentially unsafe restaurants and an extension of the listening rooms my clients have been telling me about that have begun to pop up at corporate headquarters all over the world, filled with employees hunting for signs of the next outbreak. It’s all part of a renewed focus on food safety for corporations worried that a customer eating a shred of contaminated lettuce can put you in the hospital, and when every detail of that visit can be livestreamed.