Sainsbury’s has suspended its live AI facial recognition scanning technology at one of its London stores after a customer was wrongly flagged as a shoplifter.

Matt Arnold, 46, was forced to leave the East Dulwich branch earlier this month in an incident described as “human error” by the supermarket giant.

Mr Arnold had been trying to purchase alcohol when he was identified by the AI technology in connection with an incident that had taken place that week.

The comedy promoter described it as a “terrifying glimpse of the future” that risks embarrassing customers and forcing staff to follow automated alerts rather than human logic.

He told BBC London: “They came over and said I had to leave. The staff member said I’d been identified by the AI, and the cameras had flagged me.

“A shoplifter does not walk around with that much shopping, they don’t scan it through, they don’t put their Nectar card through.

“But what upset me was thinking this is what the future could be – people just listen to what the machine tells them to do without thinking about the consequences.”

After leaving the store, he said he saw an overhead CCTV monitor alert with a red circle surrounding his face.

The supermarket uses security system Facewatch, which is used by more than 100 businesses in the UK.

Sainsbury’s said it might ask the company to suspend the system when it needs to investigate a complaint. This gives it time to provide additional training or review its processes, it added.

A spokesperson added: “We have contacted Mr Arnold to apologise for his experience at our Dulwich superstore.

“The incident was caused by human error, not the facial recognition technology.

“Customers can be reassured that the Facewatch system has a 99.98 per cent accuracy rate, and every match is reviewed by a trained manager.”

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