bruno

"mr storylets"

writer (derogatory). lead designer on Fallen London.

http://twitter.com/notbrunoagain


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Bluesky
brunodias.bsky.social

Also like... given how many people Amazon was employing tagging Just Walk Out footage, it very much does not sound like any meaningful automation even took place.

Per the Gizmodo article, Amazon has 'just over' 40 stores in the US, and 'just over half' of those were equipped with Just Walk Out. So let's be generous and say there were 30 locations.

They were employing 'over 1000 people' doing this footage-tagging task, essentially replacing conventional checkout. That's 30 people per store. Can't imagine those people were working 'only' 40 hours a week either.

Do you think your local grocery store employs 30 people just doing checkout? Maybe some big box stores but as far as I can tell, Amazon Fresh stores are small to midsize grocers.

This is not automation in any meaningful sense; it sounds like more labor was involved in making Just Walk Out work than would have been needed for conventional checkout. This is just outsourcing. It's literally just a dodge on minimum wage laws dressed up as a gee-whiz tech gimmick.

Also for people who buy into the 'training' bullshit: Just Walk Out was not new. The program started being deployed in 2016. They've been 'training' this fucking thing for going on ten years. It sure doesn't sound like they were ever going to close this loop!


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