“Documents obtained by The Verge show how Amazon used a computer system to automatically track and fire hundreds of fulfillment center employees between for failing to meet productivity quotas — a grim glimpse of a future in which AI is your boss. But the automated tracking-and-firing system sounds even more egregious — placing power over employment in the hands of an AI…
Tag: Amazon
Walmart unveils an AI-powered store of the future, now open to the public
“Walmart this morning unveiled a new “store of the future” and test grounds for emerging technologies, including AI-enabled cameras and interactive displays. The store, a working concept called the Intelligent Retail Lab — or “IRL” for short — operates out of a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Levittown, N.Y. Similar to Amazon Go’s convenience stores, the…
Walmart vs. Amazon: Who Will Win in 2019?
Image Credit: RIS News “For perspective, it’s worth noting that eMarketer expects Walmart to account for 4.6% of ecommerce sales this year, up from around 4% in 2018. The company expects to come off its 40% growth in 2018 with 35% growth in 2019. This doesn’t compare with Amazon’s strong double digit growth rate especially…
How AI is already influencing our shopping
“Pepper the robot, depicted above, has been used since 2010 and has become very popular in Japan, where it works as a customer service greeter and representative in 140 SoftBank mobile stores, with excellent results. Product recommendation is another area where AI has brought dramatic changes: when Amazon introduced a new algorithm that provides tailor-made…
Amazon’s empire rests on its low-key approach to AI
“Yes, its Alexa competes with Siri and the company offers predictive services in its cloud. But the algorithms most critical to the company’s success are those it uses to constantly streamline its own operations. The feedback loop looks the same as in its consumer-facing ai: build a service, attract customers, gather data, and let computers…