AI Is Going Great, Part 1 - 3 April 2024

A couple years ago, Amazon.com announced automated stores in which customers pick up items, put them into a cart or bag, and then "just walk out".  A cloud of cameras and scanners would watch the selection process of each customer and automatically total up the bill.  AI would drive the whole systems.  Well, not so much.  It turns out the whole system was driven by 1000 people in India paid to watch the cameras and create the receipts for "automatic" checkout.

According to a report today, 

Amazon ditches "Just Walk Out" tech: The futuristic cornerstone of Amazon's grocery store experience was a lie. Amazon advertised this experience where a completely automated process tracked your moves in the store, watching what you grabbed and tallying your bill as you "just walked out," nullifying the need for any pesky cashiers. However, it turns out the process wasn't automated at all. Instead, over 1,000 people in India were watching the cameras and assembling bills for whatever you put in your basket. 

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-grocery-stores-1851381116