- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
Amazon is phasing out its checkout-less grocery stores with “Just Walk Out” technology, first reported by The Information Tuesday. The company’s senior vice president of grocery stores says they’re moving away from Just Walk Out, which relied on cameras and sensors to track what people were leaving the store with.
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The Amazon near me has a “Just Fuck Off” policy. They redecorated the old Toys R Us building a few years ago and then never bothered to open the store.
That immediately reminded me the story of the Mechanical Turk. Check the link for further info - to keep it short both are ways to hide human labour behind alleged automation.
You linked to the original Mechanical Turk. Perhaps you already know this but Amazon actually runs an Mechanical Turk service:
You linked to the original Mechanical Turk.
Yup, that’s intended. The original Mechanical Turk was a con, just like Amazon’s “just walk out” service.
I believe it was Molly White (@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io ) who said that every AI idea like this will eventually be revealed to be a mechanical turk. So far she seems right on point.
I remember when this was going to be the future of physical retail and that it was part of the massive loss of jobs we would supposedly experience due to full automation. It reminds me of the hype surrounding AI and the overestimation of its capabilities and underestimation of its problems.
“Just walk out” was a cool idea, but I’m not sure the way they tried to implement it would have ever been successful even if they had perfected the technology. The fact that they tried to disguise it as a fully automated system when they had a team of thousands of people overseas analyzing the footage is disturbing. I like the idea of just having the scanner in the basket much better. It’s still more convenient/efficient than a checkout line or a kiosk and it helps you keep track of your total balance.
I’ve never actually been to one of these stores. They seem pretty scarce.
My university just finished replacing one of the on campus convenience stores with a “just walk out” thing. The experience just felt kinda weird overall.
What is preventing someone from just walking into a random store with no Amazon account and walking out with stuff?
The one I went to had a turnstile after you walk though the front door so you needed to scan the code from the app.
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They couldn’t train an AI well enough to replace humans in the loop. That suggests it was a bad idea from the start. If it were possible at all with the current state of the art of AI, Amazon would be one of the companies that could do it.
All this complexity and expensive tech just to avoid paying a couple of cashier’s and bagboys. It amazes me
But the guy with the MBA had a graph showing it pays for itself in 38 years! (46 if you add consulting fees.)
It worked really smoothly for me…the one time I went cuz it was such a depressing experience. Don’t get me wrong tho. I love self checkout. Amazon store sucks.
What made it depressing for you?
It just feels sad in there. The colors are sad, the products are boring, the cameras all over are dystopian. Even though there were other people there, it felt isolating. Too sterile.
Gotcha. Never seen anything on them except this story (and maybe another at some point that mentioned they were opening some), so was curious.
For sure. It’s an interesting concept but I enjoy going to the grocery store and this didn’t feel right.
Damn… I go to a corner store Amazon Go almost every time I go into the office for a flavored seltzer. They have dog treats and my my dog loves going there every time.
I hope this is one of the convenience stores that it keeps open.
It was weird that last year they reversed the way you pay, making you pay/scan your code on the way out. So backwards to the “just walk out” motto. They went back on it less than 6 months later.
If they lose even a cent doing something new its right back to the old way every time. Can’t let the share holders down I guess.
