#amazon just walk out

[therobotmonster]

There's a nuance to the Amazon AI checkout story that gets missed.

Because AI-assisted checkouts on its own isn't a bad thing:

This was a big story in 2022, about a bread-checkout system in Japan that turned out to be applicable in checking for cancer cells in sample slides.

But that bonus anti-cancer discovery isn't the subject here, the actual bread-checkout system is. That checkout system worked, because it wasn't designed with the intent of making the checkout cashier obsolete, rather, it was there to solve a real problem: it's hard to tell pastry apart at a glance, and the customers didn't like their bread with a plastic-wrapping and they didn't like the cashiers handling the bread to count loaves.

So they trained the system intentionally, under controlled circumstances, before testing and launching the tech. The robot does what it's good at, and it doesn't need to be omniscient because it's a tool, not a replacement worker.

Amazon, however, wanted to offload its training not just on an underpaid overseas staff, but on the customers themselves. And they wanted it out NOW so they could brag to shareholders about this new tech before the tech even worked. And they wanted it to replace a person, but not just the cashier. There were dreams of a world where you can't shoplift because you'd get billed anyway dancing in the investor's heads.

Only, it's one thing to make a robot that helps cooperative humans count bread, and it's another to try and make one that can thwart the ingenuity of hungry people.

The foreign workers performing the checkouts are actually supposed to be training the models. A lot of reports gloss over this in an effort to present the efforts as an outsourcing Mechanical Turk but that's really a side-effect. These models all work on datasets, and the only place you get a dataset of "this visual/sensor input=this purchase" is if someone is cataloging a dataset correlating the two...

Which Amazon could have done by simply putting the sensor system in place and correlating the purchase data from the cashiers with the sensor tracking of the customer. Just do that for as long as you need to build the dataset and test it by having it predict and compare in the background until you reach your preferred ratio. If it fails, you have a ton of market research data as a consolation prize.

But that could take months or years and you don't get to pump your stock until it works, and you don't get to outsource your cashiers while pretending you've made Westworld work.

This way, even though Amazon takes a little bit of a PR bloody nose, they still have the benefit of any stock increase this already produced, the shareholders got their dividends.

Which I suppose is a lot of words to say:

[tastycitrus]

cass at the end of the current arc in Birds of Prey (2023), probably

Cass: Hey, I'm back. Steph: Hey, Cass, where have you been— *she sees that Cass's costume is in tatters and she's covered in all sorts of injuries* Steph: Oh my god! What happened to you?! Cass: Went on a mission. Got hit. Steph: ...By who?? Cass: Big Barda. Steph: Steph: Why were you fighting— Cass: And Wonder Woman. Steph: Cass: Also some thing called Megaera. Steph: Cass, coughing up blood: Oh, that's not good. *she passes out* Steph: Steph: What the hell.

[euclydya]

☺️ WHY CAN'T WE HAVE A NORMAL RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR MOM

[spacediddly]

The thoughts I am having about Butchie and villain arch Hughie based on The Chain by Fleetwood Mac

[agentemo]

I've talked before about how a song will get stuck in my head if my subconscious decides I don't need the conscious thought, just a cute little soundtrack. Migraine by twenty one pilots when I get a migraine, Mad At Myself by Issues when I get mad at myself, etc. But it isn't always that straight forward.

Today I asked my brother where he bought something and he told me Amazon. Then Overprotected by Britney Spears got stuck in my head. Why? The lyric "there must be another way/cuz I believe in taking chances" aka Britney being the voice in my head subconsciously reminding me that I hate how much we are rely on Amazon.

[angelnumber27]

Most comfy best shoes ever in the world

[fingertipsmp3]

I love when Amazon plays itself. It’s genuinely so funny

[sapphicautistic]

It's fantasize about the freedom granted by a power chair hours over here

[eveningdawn222]

typical airport experience

- woman wearing a hijab gets pulled aside for "random screening" (along with the black man and small child accompanying her) ✔️

- my backpack gets pulled aside for "routine check" (my beefy ass gaming laptop was too cool for the machine) ✔️

- they ask me about the large bottle of a liquid, class III controlled drug i'm carrying ❌

- my phone and wallet are pulled aside to be checked ???? ✔️

- overpriced airport food is mid ✔️

- seats on airplane are too small to fit my fat ass ✔️

[suzilight]

Source: The_Byte

Amazon is giving up with its unusual "Just Walk Out" technology, The Information reports, which allowed customers to simply put their shopping into their bags and leave the store without having to get in line at the checkout.

The tech, which was only available at half of the e-commerce giant's Amazon Fresh stores, used a host of cameras and sensors to track what shoppers 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 over 1,000 workers in India, who were acting as remote cashiers.

In other words, Just Walk Out — a highly invasive marketing ploy to get more customers to shop at its stores while actively undercutting the local job market — will be missed by few.

[nickgerlich]

Pushing The Needle

You can’t blame a company for trying, for pushing the needle not just a little bit, but so much that it raises eyebrows. After all, these are the innovators among us, but we typically only assign that word when they have pushed that needle and been successful in finding a new way to do something. If they fail…well, it becomes fodder for business school class discussions.

Like today, since Amazon just pulled the plug on its Just Walk Out program that is available in some of its Amazon Fresh grocery stores. And to be on the safe side, I made sure my source material was not published two days ago on April Fools Day. In other words, this is no whopper. It’s legit news.

The premise behind JWO was that once shoppers entered one of the stores and opened an app, they could grab whatever they wanted, and simply walk out. Amazon relied on sensors and cameras to keep tabs on things, and inherently put a lot of trust in its shoppers, no doubt much more trust than the kind offered by Target, Walmart, and others with self-check kiosks.

But what was not apparent all along is the fact that Amazon relied on crews of video surveillance employees in India, who were in fact watching everything that shoppers did, and making sure the running tab was accurate. Even then, it would sometimes take hours of review before a final receipt could be issued, and charges placed on the customer’s credit card.

According to one report, one that Amazon denies, 700 out of 1000 transactions required review.

JWO launched in 2016, which now seems like eons ago. As for Amazon Fresh, of which there are only 40 stores in the chain, it debuted in 2007. About half of the Fresh stores have JWO technology. Instead, Amazon is rolling out—literally and metaphorically—Dash Carts, which allow for shoppers to scan and check out directly from their trolley. It is unclear how airport and stadium shops that have third-party vendors who license JWO technology will have to adapt, if at all.

The whole idea of JWO was to eliminate a layer of overhead by cutting out labor. It’s just that they moved it to India, where apparently labor costs are so cheap that, even after installing all of the in-store equipment and paying those human reviewers, it was still less than just having cashiers here in the States. I can’t imagine the new shopping carts costing much less, but here we are.

It’s easy to bash Amazon for ditching JWO, but the bottom line is this: They use their Fresh stores as a laboratory for retail operations, and if something works, they will likely deploy it elsewhere, like in their much larger Whole Foods chain. If it doesn’t work, then they kill it, and with JWO in only about 20 stores, it is a much less costly misstep than launching it on a much larger scale.

I understand all retailers’ desire to reduce labor costs, but the idea that someone half a world away from me is watching my every move is more than just a little creepy. It sounds Orwellian in application, and even though it’s not the government eavesdropping from a corner-mounted camera, it’s easily just as weird, and maybe even more so.

Stores have long relied on two-way mirrors for observing shoppers, because “shrink” as shoplifting is called has always been a problem. Many other stores also use security cameras to do likewise, meaning there are humans in a control room with their eyes glued to grainy black-and-white screens. But monitoring at what likely amounted to one-on-one surveillance is a harder pill to swallow.

Amazon’s new shopping carts still mean there is an element of trust involved, because the system still depends on shoppers manually scanning and checking out. It is little different from other scan-and-go systems in place, like at Costco and Sam’s Club. There is no perfect alternative, including the traditional check-out with a human cashier.

In Amazon’s quest to shape the future, the company, and by extension, all of us, now know how it won’t look. Like I said, you can’t blame a company for trying. But all the cameras and sensors in the world can’t guarantee that an idea will work. The needle broke on this one.

Dr “What’s In Your Cart?” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[wetterroomba]

I feel like I'm going insane. Last few nights there haven't been leftovers and my mom started complaining about when 1, the fridge is a graveyard of uneaten leftovers I now have to clean out and 2, there's plenty of shit in the freezer she can chuck in the air fryer if she's that pressed about but oh no, of course not, that's too much fucking work for her to open a door and look for something

[volinare]

i wanna get these one day but theyre knit and my ass is flat (diaper butt)

[dduane]

Hello.

I've seen you posting detailed information about the WGA strike and wondered if you had any suggestions as to how those of us not directly involved can show our support for the Union?

Okay, bearing in mind that all this is entirely subjective at the moment (and so far lacking any more useful input from other sources): a few thoughts.

This will be my third WGA strike. (My first one was in 1988, just after I'd made my first live action sale—s1e6 of ST:TNG). And the thought keeps occurring to me at the moment that this time out, there's a potentially gamechanging player on the field that wasn't there before: truly pervasive social media.

(Adding a cut here, because this goes on a bit...)

In 2007, social media as we now understand it was still in its cradle. Now, though, those of us who're striking can make our voices much more widely heard. And so can those of us who're not, but just want to show solidarity. Last time, the AMPTP was able to do pretty much what it wanted without the public noticing or having even a medium-profile way to make their feelings known. But this time? Not so much.

So as an otherwise uninvolved person who wants to show solidarity, I'd start with something seemingly low-value. If I was on Twitter, I'd start routinely tweeting about the strike and my support for it—not obsessively, just persistently, a couple/few times a week—using the Twitter hashtags that are gaining ground even now, such as #DoTheWriteThing (and of course #WGAStrike). I would make sure I was following @WGAEast and @WGAWest, to keep an eye on what's going on.

Additionally: I would start politely, but repeatedly—again, maybe once or twice a week at least, and not stopping—tweeting the various major players in the AMPTP, especially the streamers: Amazon, Netflix, Hulu et al. I would start suggesting that their current attitude toward the WGA's contract negotiations is not only unrealistic but potentially (for the AMPTP) bad for business. (And self-destructive, too, as if this goes on much longer in this vein, they'll be seemingly eagerly casting themselves as The Baddies.) I would suggest that their bad behavior, if not amended by them coming to the table to bargain in good faith, might start affecting both my interest in their shows and my willingness to keep paying unreasonable people for access to them.

I should emphasize here that so far there've been no formal calls from anyone for boycotts or subscription cancellations. For the moment, this strikes me as wise. The point for WGA-friendly observers, right now, would be to keep what's happening to the writers visible: to keep bringing it up: to refuse to allow it to be swept under the rug. The "They only want two cents on the dollar!" angle seems potentially useful the more it's repeated. The point is to keep the repetition going: to make it plain, day after day, that the other side's being not just unreasonable, but greedy. Day after day, and week after week, and (if necessary: please Thoth may it not be...) month after month.

And tweeting is hardly all that can be done. Email is cheap and easy. But actual letters, written on actual paper and mailed, can still create a surprising amount of attention in a corporate office. (The saying in TV used to be that for every person who actually writes in about an issue, there are ten, or a hundred, who feel the same way but never got around to it.) Write letters to all the AMPTP members' CEOs, and make your feelings on the WGA's core demands politely plain. ...Especially when those CEOs collectively made almost three-quarters of a billion-with-a-B dollars in salaries last year, when many of the writers working on their shows can't afford rent.

After that: here's another thought, a little more physical. If by chance you're in an area where one or the other of the Guilds are picketing: turn out and support them! Honk when you pass: and if you're interested, show up and offer to walk the picket lines with them. These things get noticed. (In 2007 a bunch of us, both Guild members and non-, caused significant astonishment by turning out to picket AMPTP members' offices in Dublin.)

...Obviously not all that many people are going to be positioned, in terms of location or their own work and time commitments, to show up physically. But online? Find ways to keep this issue visible. The AMPTP wants this to go quiet, wants people to get bored with it, wants people to find reasons to blame the writers. They've tried spinning the story that way before. Don't let them pull that shit. Find ways to back those who're calling them on that, publicly. They do respond to this kind of thing (though they may strenuously deny it). If enough attention continues to be paid by the general public, they will blink—if sometimes excruciatingly slowly, as Disney began to blink over the dispute tagged #DisneyMustPay.

As viewers, and as viewers who pay for subscriptions to things, we far outnumber them. Help be a part of making the AMPTP understand that this quest for a truly fair deal is not going to go away. And the longer they try to act like the Guild's negotiation positions are beneath their notice, the more it's going to hurt them, and the stupider and greedier it's going to make them look.

...That's all I've got for the moment, as I need some lunch. :) ...But I hope this has helped. And thanks for your concern, and your desire to stand in solidarity with us! It's so welcome. :)

ETA: here's a link to the Guild's social media toolkit, for those who'd like to change PFPs or icons, etc., to show their support.

[d3stinyist1red]

ʏᴀɴᴅᴇʀᴇ ʟɪɢʜᴛ ʏᴀɢᴀᴍɪ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

Yan light who met you in highschool, the last year

Yan light who becomes your study partner, helping u and ur dumb lil brain

Yan light who starts realizing how cute you were, but never had a crush on u (he did he just never wanted to admit it)

Yan light who now has a crush on you after him trying to convince himself that you're not his type,

Yan light who now helps you with more than studying, whenever you don't have a pencil, he'll give it to you eagerly, whenever you want something from Amazon but your too broke, he'll buy it for you, whenever your too lazy to work on assignments, you call him and he'll let you copy

Yan light who is now your friend rather than study buddie

Yan light who sits with you during lunch, not bothering to hang out with his other popular friends, telling you that he prefers you

Yan light who stares at you during class, thinking of all the things you could do to him before shaking his head, and covering his blushing face

Yan light who convinces his sister that you're his gf, and that's why you keep coming over to his house.

Yan light who now is by your side 24/7, walking you to classes, holding your backpack for you as you ramble about the girl u don't fw, walking you home, and more

Yan light whose house you go to for a study session, but you knew it was just gonna turn out to you rambling about drama as he watched you with heart eyes, hand on your thigh

Yan light who convinces you to stay over, saying "N/n, it's too dark out, just stay here yeah?"

Yan light who you ask "Light, where am I gonna sleep?"

Yan light who smiles, and says "In my bed, where else, sweetheart?" As if it was the most obvious thing in the world

Yan light who cuddles you throughout the night, arms around your waist as he whines when you try to pull away from him

Yan light who now tells you to go to the college he's going to, giving you puppy dog eyes as you refuse

"Sweetheart, come into the college I'm going to, you don't wanna be separated do you?"

"Honey, what do you mean your too dumb? Just copy off me, my love."

Yan light who makes you go to his college, smiling at you when you finally tell him "Fine, I'll go to your college."

Yan light who now barely lets you go to your own house, "Am I not good enough for you, love?" He asks with tears in his eyes like bro I just asked u if I could go home

Yan light who cooks and cleans for you, "Honey, do you want me to make you some pasta for tonight?" He saids all giggly, his sister just gags in disgust bc why is her rat brother acting like a middle school girl in love

Yan light who is literally 3 seconds away from smashing the TV in his room because your busy playing GTA rather than him, he's literally half naked, wanting you to touch him and your playing GTA tryna run from the cops?! How dare you, just watch, he'll get rid of that fucking ga-

"hey wife, can ya bring me my water?" You ask, you gave him a glance making him perk up, knowing that if u called him wife, he'll do anything for u

"Okay! ♡" What was he thinking about again?

Yan light who finally got the death note, and told you "If you fucking even look at someone else other than me, I'll kill them."

"wife, you barely even let me see my own family"

Yan light who Misa finally meets up with

"Light! I'm your classmate, and you dropped this book!" Misa said, showing the book as light makes her follow her to his room. You were inside the room, playing rock paper scissors with ryuk the homie

Oh yeah that lil bitch light showed you the death note and practically said he'll rip anyone's skull if they even bother to look in your direction, genuinely u weren't even shocked bc ur wife was just like that fr fr but anyway now ur homies with ryuk

They both walked into the room, and Misa was quick to glare at you. 'Light is my love, and I am his so why is this homewrecker all up in his bed like that!' was her train of thought, ready to launch at you before seeing Lights dark glare on here

"Don't even fucking think about it, now why are you here?"

They talked and Misa told him if he dated anyone but her, she'll kill them.

"thats...too bad, I'm already y/ns wife"

Yan light who is your wife that kills anyone who gets between you both <333

GUYS LOWKEY IMMA MAKE A YAN DEATH NOTE AND YAN JOJO BIZAREE ADVENTURE STORY ON MY WATTPAD LOLOLO

YAN TOWN, YAN MC DONALDS WORKER, YAN CELEBRITY, AND MORE COMING OUT SOONOJFBYUSDYUHjn

HOPE YALL LIKED THIS ONE I LITERALLY WAS HALF ASLEEP

[fingertipsmp3]

Sometimes it really feels like the world is conspiring to keep me from reading