Skip to Content
Uncategorized

Amazon’s automation goes white collar

June 13, 2018

The ranks of the company’s retail team have dwindled, and algorithms have taken people’s place.

Some background: Use of automation in Amazon’s warehouses continues to grow. Its robot army now numbers over 100,000 strong.

Office automation: The company’s cubicle jockeys aren’t immune to the algorithmic invasion. What started with shifting ordering and inventory-tracking responsibilities over to software has now expanded to tasks like negotiating with major brands. “Computers know what to buy and when to buy, when to offer a deal and when not to,” Neil Ackerman, a former Amazon executive, told Bloomberg. “These algorithms that take in thousands of inputs and are always running [are] smarter than any human.”

The upshot: As it became clear that software was going to do more of the heavy lifting for Amazon’s retail business, human workers saw the writing on the wall. Instead of sticking around at jobs that were becoming marginalized, many left or found work elsewhere in the company. Some former employees have even gotten gigs helping brands navigate Amazon’s new automated system.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.