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Amazon's empire rests on its low-key approach to AI

economist.com

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Re: Amazon's empire rests on its low-key approach to AI

#91
post #37

And yet I still get emails from Amazon trying to sell me products I just bought. Bought a hygrometer earlier in the week, delivered yesterday, email today about hygrometers. Maybe they have data showing that converts well.

I bought a hygrometer to test on one plant, works well, going to buy some more (actual situation). I may not need more than one trimmer but with high probability Amazons algorithms know that some products are bought more than once.

Re: Amazon's empire rests on its low-key approach to AI

#92
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://outline.com/34PN5W

"Screw ad supported services, if only they provided a way to pay for their content, then I would totally just do that" -- HN

It adds up fast. I spend 100 euro on all my news subscriptions (and i still don't have the NYT or the WP). I can totally appreciate that others may not subscribe as much, or to the same set of services.

Spotify for news would be super good, though.

Re: Amazon's empire rests on its low-key approach to AI

#93
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Screw ad supported services, if only they provided a way to pay for their content, then I would totally just do that" -- HN

It adds up fast. I spend 100 euro on all my news subscriptions (and i still don't have the NYT or the WP). I can totally appreciate that others may not subscribe as much, or to the same set of services. Spotify for news would be super good, though.

> Spotify for news would be super good, though.

Apple News+ [0]

[0]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209513

Re: Amazon's empire rests on its low-key approach to AI

#94
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At most companies this would run the risk of poorly shoe-horning ML into a bunch of applications and making everything needlessly complex & expensive without seeing improved results (same goes for blockchain). Sure, and in Amazon, you get a few tweaks that get the company a few bucks. It suspect the article wildly overstates the value of ML to Amazon. Amazon's success seems to rest on: A. Attracting enough capital to…

Feel like you've massively glossed over Amazon's strategy. From working there, data-driven decision making and automation permeated throughout the whole company culture. For me, this was evident from the fact that quite literally everything was automated: Physical SKU distribution was allocated by an algorithm, optimizing for space density and picker path length. Pickers carried trackers to enable the data to constan…

I was discussing Machine Learning in particular. The wider use of automation is certainly something goes along with building at scale, so yeah that deserves mention.

Re: Amazon's empire rests on its low-key approach to AI

#95

I ran Kindle software Product Management for 3 years. Left in 2014 AMA about the memo process or OP1/OP2 process.

I'm very interested in this 6-page memo, I also found during my PhD that writing can really help clarify thinking. You may think you have a very clear idea in your mind but then when you write this to paper, many gaps can suddenly appear. I've looked all over online for an example of a memo but I couldn't find anything beyond a basic narrative structure. You mentioned below that you have templated FAQ docs, I'm assum…

Sorry for the late reply. The template is more formatting than anything else. The core questions:

1) What is in this doc? What decision do we need to make? 2) Why is this important? 3) Who is the customer for this solution? 4) How have others tried to or solved this and how were their solutions insufficient? 5) How are we planning on solving this? 6) specifics 7) What options have we considered and thrown out? 8) What resources are required? 9) What are the one-way doors in this plan? (meaning: what decisions cannot be undone) 10) Timing?

Re: Amazon's empire rests on its low-key approach to AI

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It adds up fast. I spend 100 euro on all my news subscriptions (and i still don't have the NYT or the WP). I can totally appreciate that others may not subscribe as much, or to the same set of services. Spotify for news would be super good, though.

> Spotify for news would be super good, though. Apple News+ [0] [0]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209513

Yeah, I appreciate the thought, but I have no intention of getting invested in the Apple ecosystem.
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