...And shortly after they were made warehouse shift supervisors at Amazon by Jeff Bezos.
Good idea, but it would be ineffective there because the Amazon managers have already found the screaming workers distracting to optimal output, so muzzles are employed to boost productivity.
And just think, a group of humans decided to build this thing. It wasn't just one crazy person's idea. This is a group of respected researchers at a respected institution, and I'd bet they specifically applied for and received a funding grant for this project. These are supposedly our smartest people and institutions. WTF is wrong with people and our civilization? And it just gets brushed away with "well, we're building this with benign purposes" as if that absolves any consideration of the impact of the general technology.