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AWS Just Walk Out Technology

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Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#21

Post by kn0where »

KerrAvon wrote: post #2

SNL satire of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9U3Gc832Y

I'm 90% sure Amazon paid SNL to make this ad (SNL does paid brand integration in various skits, see Tom Scott's video on product placement for other examples https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-x8DYTOv7w). It's a spoof commercial where the product advertised isn't what's being made fun of. The set is unusually authentic to actual Amazon Go stores, down to the "just walk out" logo signage, and the loud and clear message of the ad is that you should stop worrying and trust Amazon. They're lampshading people's distrust of automation, especially in a liberal context of racial equity, and demonstrating that actually Keenan was really silly for thinking a computer would be racist.

Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#22

Post by thrashh »

ALittleLight wrote: post #11
bushbaba wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the best example as to why DEI for companies matters. A room full of white & asian men would likely not pick up on this prior to the launch.

Obviously white and Asian men are capable of realizing that customers might feel like they are stealing items (or will be accused of stealing) in the Go store. It is ridiculous to think such an obvious concern would be invisible to people based on their race or gender. It's also very strange to think that team members should be responsible for speaking for their race. Imagine if your team had a black engineer and you…

No one is responsible for representing any of their background but you work with a diverse group of people because different people bring different ideas to the table

You cannot do focus groups for issues you don’t even know about. Race isn’t the only factor here — someone who grew up on a farm is going to have different things to say than someone that grew up in the city.

Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#23

Post by sdoering »

tbrownaw wrote: post #6

> 60 percent of respondents state that long wait times to check out are a major concern while shopping in a store. The report also revealed that 80 percent of retail executive respondents believe that smart checkout is one of the most important solutions to invest in over the next five years. The local Kroger instances here have these handheld things you can use to scan items as you put them in your cart rather than…

> 60 percent of respondents state that long wait times to check out are a major concern while shopping in a store.

There is an easy fix: hire people to ensure that wait time is minimal by opening as much checkout isles as possible. But in the economists wet dream the automated, humanless solution wins by being cheaper.

> The report also revealed that 80 percent of retail executive respondents believe that smart checkout is one of the most important solutions to invest in over the next five years.

Absolutely, because you have no need to pay additional squishy meat sacks when people/shoppers can do the work themselves with self checkout. Externalise the cost onto the customer.

Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#24

Post by deepdriver »

thrashh wrote: post #22
ALittleLight wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously white and Asian men are capable of realizing that customers might feel like they are stealing items (or will be accused of stealing) in the Go store. It is ridiculous to think such an obvious concern would be invisible to people based on their race or gender. It's also very strange to think that team members should be responsible for speaking for their race. Imagine if your team had a black engineer and you…

No one is responsible for representing any of their background but you work with a diverse group of people because different people bring different ideas to the table You cannot do focus groups for issues you don’t even know about. Race isn’t the only factor here — someone who grew up on a farm is going to have different things to say than someone that grew up in the city.

>you work with a diverse group of people because different people bring different ideas to the table

This is sometimes true, but quite often it is ownership-class propaganda to depress wages and prevent worker solidarity. For example:

>Stores at higher risk of unionizing have lower diversity and lower employee compensation, as well as higher total store sales and higher rates of workers' compensation claims, according to [Whole Foods'] documents.

https://archive.ph/1khJw

Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#25

Post by throwaway290 »

ALittleLight wrote: post #8

I've been impressed by the Amazon Go stores. They seem to work pretty well. I'm glad to see Amazon at least trying to spread this technology. I enjoy using it. I do think the palm reading thing will be a potential vulnerability in two regards. First, maybe as a "hack". Is there a way to fake the palm scan? Something you could put on your palm to assume someone else's palm print? If I use this service will I have to b…

AWS appears to be an umbrella for all the B2B stuff that is not B2C/Amazon itself, and in many cases is not directly "web" (see private 5G networks, Snow, Ground Station, etc.)

Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#26

Post by bigmattystyles »

kn0where wrote: post #21
KerrAvon wrote: post #2

SNL satire of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9U3Gc832Y

I'm 90% sure Amazon paid SNL to make this ad (SNL does paid brand integration in various skits, see Tom Scott's video on product placement for other examples https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-x8DYTOv7w ). It's a spoof commercial where the product advertised isn't what's being made fun of. The set is unusually authentic to actual Amazon Go stores, down to the "just walk out" logo signage, and the loud and clear messag…

Same with Alexa silver. That being said it was pretty funny. https://youtu.be/YvT_gqs5ETk

Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#27

Post by jsolson »

asah wrote: post #15

Meh - I was excited by JWO but it now looks like self-checkout will win because it works pretty well these days, and it handles all the corner cases including product sold by weight, large items, identical-looking items (common in grocery), etc. With self-checkout, you don't need an account which is crucial for travelers. Self-checkout also supports cash for the unbanked. I've tried SC in multiple countries, just hit…

I can't really fathom how you can include "scan, scan, scan, weight, scan, scan, scan, checkout, touch my credit card, go" in your comment and consider that comparable to "leave." For routine grocery shopping the technology is incredible.

That said, I'll grant that it's also creepy AF. The bigger issue for me, though, is that Amazon is so fucking awful at physical retail inventory management (both the selection of items that should be there and the selection of items actually available for purchase) that the Go Grocery in Seattle went from being "this is how I buy groceries" to "there is zero chance they'll have most, let alone all, of the items on my incredibly boring grocery list."

Amazon still wins, though... I end up walking the other direction and going to Whole Foods...

Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#28

Post by deepdriver »

kn0where wrote: post #21
KerrAvon wrote: post #2

SNL satire of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9U3Gc832Y

I'm 90% sure Amazon paid SNL to make this ad (SNL does paid brand integration in various skits, see Tom Scott's video on product placement for other examples https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-x8DYTOv7w ). It's a spoof commercial where the product advertised isn't what's being made fun of. The set is unusually authentic to actual Amazon Go stores, down to the "just walk out" logo signage, and the loud and clear messag…

Corporate AI would never be racist. Just ask Microsoft Tay, or Meta's latest chatbot, or Google Photos, or GPT-3 prior to hard-coded tweaks...

Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#29

Post by [deleted] »

asah wrote: post #15

Meh - I was excited by JWO but it now looks like self-checkout will win because it works pretty well these days, and it handles all the corner cases including product sold by weight, large items, identical-looking items (common in grocery), etc. With self-checkout, you don't need an account which is crucial for travelers. Self-checkout also supports cash for the unbanked. I've tried SC in multiple countries, just hit…

[deleted]

Re: AWS Just Walk Out Technology

#30

Post by trollied »

nprateem wrote: post #7

Expect to have to install an app for every store you want to go into over the next few years with all the accompanying snooping. This tech is a wet dream for retailers. Who needs store cards when they can just see in realtime what you're picking up and putting back, along with your demographic data.

> Who needs store cards when they can just see in realtime what you're picking up and putting back, along with your demographic data.

Not just that - also track your eyes to see what else you've anticipated.

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