An unmanned convenience store opened Monday at Takanawa Gateway Station, making use of artificial intelligence not just to speed up checkouts but also to prevent shoplifting.

The store is a key feature at the station, which opened on March 14 as the first addition to the Yamanote loop line in nearly 50 years.

The AI has been trained to recognize customer behavior, including how items are carried, and it almost fully prevents shoplifting by accurately recognizing when merchandise is taken from the shelves, according to developer Touch To Go Co.

Attempts in a demonstration to hide merchandise under clothes or to avoid the cameras while stashing them in a bag were all detected.