this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
726 points (99.5% liked)

Technology

86251 readers
4225 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 166 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Isn't this exactly what was exposed at the Amazon "Just Walk Out" stores? Turns out all the cameras and sensors weren't good enough, so they paid thousands of people in India to watch videos and correct checkouts. They basically just outsourced the position of cashier, while pretending it was all done automatically!

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-grocery-stores-1851381116

[–] CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 99 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Peoole aren’t appreciating just how bad these things are because they’re misinterpreting it. The goal of what they are doing here and with Amazon was never to just fake the technology right. The goal was to fake that the technology existed by using humans to do an automated thing and then to leverage that into making it actually automated.

But essentially what that means is theyre inventing technology that hasn’t been invented yet and selling it to you and the reason for doing so is to replace you with technology before it can even technically happen.

It’s essentially like someone building a new automated factory and telling workers at their other locations that they can’t be hired there since it’s automated but then someone goes inside and finds out they’re just using child laborers until the robots are ready and also robots haven’t been invented yet.

They’re using blood to grease wheels that don’t even exist to turn yet.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 4 points 1 year ago

Feels like it should be illegal to mislead people like that.

[–] eRac@lemmings.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On the other hand, the only way to get good training data is to generate data indistinguishable from the real-world scenario and then have humans mark it up the way you want the system to do it. You might as well have the data actually be from the real world and recoup some of the costs with sales.

[–] DoPeopleLookHere@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sure, but you still shouldn't be selling the technology as actually working, instead of developing.

Amazon bought whole foods a while back. What would have stopped them from just collecting the data in their own stores, and then developed the tech?

Hint: shareholder value.

load more comments (8 replies)