How does Just Walk Out know what I’m buying?
On its website, AWS, a separate division of Amazon, said customers using Just Walk Out technology can walk into a store using Amazon One (where customers can register their palm to connect with their payment method), a credit/debit card, or an app, shop for items and leave. Customers are automatically charged for their purchases.
“Sensors, cameras and deep learning tools sense what a consumer takes off the shelf,” the website said.
An Amazon spokesperson explained further: “Just Walk Out technology is made possible by artificial intelligence like computer vision and deep learning techniques, including generative AI, to accurately determine who took what in any retail environment. Amazon built synthetic datasets to mimic millions of realistic shopping scenarios – including variations in store format, lighting conditions, and even crowds of shoppers – to ensure accuracy in any environment.”
However, several media outlets have said that workers in India may also be significantly involved.
Like many artificial intelligence systems, Amazon’s system relies on human moderators and data labelers, who review Just Walk Out transactions and label footage to help train the AI models that make it work, CNBC said. The Information reported last year that the team was made up of more than 1,000 employees, primarily based in India, according to CNBC. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed at the time that it uses human moderators but declined to say how many people it employs in these roles, according to The Information report.
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About 700 of every 1,000 Just Walk Out sales had to be reviewed by Amazon’s team in India in 2022, according to The Information, as reported by Business Insider. Internally, Amazon wanted just 50 out of every 1,000 sales to get a manual check, according to the report.
What is Amazon saying?
In a statement on Thursday, an Amazon spokesperson took issue with the media reports.
“The misconception that Just Walk Out technology relies on human reviewers watching shoppers live from India is misleading and inaccurate,” an Amazon spokesperson said via an e-mail statement to USA TODAY. “As with many AI systems, the underlying machine learning model is continuously improved by generating synthetic data and annotating actual video data.
“Our associates validate a small portion of shopping visits by reviewing recorded video clips to ensure that our systems are performing at our high bar for accuracy, which is made possible because we continuously improve both our algorithms and use human input to correct them.”
-Lin-Fisher, B. (2024, April 5). Does Amazon’s cashless just walk out technology rely on 1,000 workers in India? USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2024/04/04/amazon-just-walk-out-indian-workers/73204975007/
On the surface, this technology is very impressive. The fact that through cameras and sensors the AI can detect what items are being purchased is very interesting. However, it seems that human interference is necessary at this stage to ensure that this system works correctly and the machine can learn through guided practice. Amazon should not have tried to conceal the fact that there were workers assisting the AI and pretend that the system was fully self sufficient. They tried to seem more futuristic and technologically advanced than they are, when they should have been transparent about how the AI is still learning and the technology isn’t perfect yet. It’s important to understand that AI is not some magical bandage we can slap on every problem, and it shouldn’t be used as a gimmick to market a grocery store. One thing I was thinking throughout learning about this technology was why we needed to work toward this store experience in the first place. Why do we need a cashier-less store where customers can walk out and have automatically paid for their groceries? Do we really need to have everything be the most convenient version of itself it can be and have every experience happen instantly through technology? I understand that checkout lines at the store can become long and sometimes people can wait for a long time, and this system would address that inconvenience. But it would also take away jobs from cashiers and yet again use technology to enforce the feeling of entitlement to instant gratification in people. It also feels dystopian to give Amazon your hand print scan.
I’d like to stray away from a purely technological solution in my project, and will definitely not utilize AI in my design. I’m tired of hearing about AI.
