Amazon is ditching grocery stores where you just walk out with your stuff after it turns out its ‘AI’ was powered by 1,000 human contractors

I just left

Amazon is ditching its amazing “Just Walk Out” technology, information reports, thanks to which customers could simply pack their purchases into a bag and leave the store without waiting in line at the checkout.

The technology, which was available in only half of the e-commerce giant’s Amazon Fresh stores, used an array of cameras and sensors to track what customers left the store with. But instead of closing the technological loop with pure automation and AI, the company also had to rely on an army of more than 1,000 employees in India to act as remote cashiers.

In other words, Just Walk Out — a highly invasive marketing ploy designed to drive more customers into stores while actively undermining the local job market — will be noticed by few.

Dystopian retail

Instead of Just Walk Out, Amazon is now relying on scanners and screens built into shopping carts, known as Dash Carts.

The technology they’re replacing, however, was much more ambitious. In 2018, Amazon began rolling out its Just Walk Out system, which was supposed to revolutionize the AI ​​shopping experience worldwide. Several other companies, including Walmart, have followed suit, announcing similar cashierless stores.

But more than five years later, the system has seemingly become a bigger burden. According to informationThe technology was simply too slow and expensive to implement, with third-party cashiers reportedly taking hours to transmit data so customers could receive their receipts.

In addition to relying on cheap, outsourced labor instead of paying fair wages locally, critics have also long questioned Amazon’s practice of collecting reams of sensitive data, including customer behavior in the store, turning a quick visit to a store into a privacy nightmare.

Last year, consumer advocacy group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the company of failing to tell customers it was secretly selling data to Starbucks for profit.

Despite its aggressive expansion into the retail market, Amazon’s grocery footprint in the U.S. is still small compared to rival chains including Walmart, Costco and Kroger, because Gizmodo draws attention.

The question remains whether Dash Carts will prove to be less invasive from a data privacy perspective.

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