ββ#ArtificialIntelligence #JustWalkOut #Amazonβ
π₯ How Indians Defeated Artificial Intelligence
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Amazon has scrapped Just Walk Out self-service technology in its Fresh retail grocery stores in the US. The artificial intelligence-driven shopper monitoring system proved too costly, too trusting and unprofitable.
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There was a lot of publicity buzz around the Just Walk Out technology. The computer system in
Amazon stores was supposed to make technical and financial decisions based on information from the many cameras and sensors in the sales area. Alas, it was only an illusion of automation and a banal advertising deception. To control which products customers leave the store with (and charge accordingly)
Amazon hired more than 1,000 "offshore cashiers" - real people from India - to manually monitor the cameras and sensors. The human eye proved to be more honest than the computer eye.
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It took expensive equipment to replace the regular staff at every Fresh store in the U.S., but there were still problems with product and customer identification, delays in payments and receipts, etc. The project was brought to a halt by a class action lawsuit in New York that accused
Amazon of illegally collecting biometric information without notifying the consumer.
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Amazon has repeatedly tried to sell the "Just Walk Out" technology, as well as the idea of the "smart shopping cart" Dash to other retailers. However, only Starbucks decided to experiment, and a few hospitals tried to launch it for medical staff. But even that didn't last long. Probably, after they learned about "secret" Hindu cashiers, trust in
Amazon's technologies in retail was minimal - so far, natural intelligence has proved to be more reliable than artificial intelligence.
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Profits to yβall!