#JUST WALK OUT

[extantformoflife]

[therobotmonster]

There's a nuance to the Amazon AI checkout story that gets missed.

Because AI-assisted checkouts on its own isn't a bad thing:

This was a big story in 2022, about a bread-checkout system in Japan that turned out to be applicable in checking for cancer cells in sample slides.

But that bonus anti-cancer discovery isn't the subject here, the actual bread-checkout system is. That checkout system worked, because it wasn't designed with the intent of making the checkout cashier obsolete, rather, it was there to solve a real problem: it's hard to tell pastry apart at a glance, and the customers didn't like their bread with a plastic-wrapping and they didn't like the cashiers handling the bread to count loaves.

So they trained the system intentionally, under controlled circumstances, before testing and launching the tech. The robot does what it's good at, and it doesn't need to be omniscient because it's a tool, not a replacement worker.

Amazon, however, wanted to offload its training not just on an underpaid overseas staff, but on the customers themselves. And they wanted it out NOW so they could brag to shareholders about this new tech before the tech even worked. And they wanted it to replace a person, but not just the cashier. There were dreams of a world where you can't shoplift because you'd get billed anyway dancing in the investor's heads.

Only, it's one thing to make a robot that helps cooperative humans count bread, and it's another to try and make one that can thwart the ingenuity of hungry people.

The foreign workers performing the checkouts are actually supposed to be training the models. A lot of reports gloss over this in an effort to present the efforts as an outsourcing Mechanical Turk but that's really a side-effect. These models all work on datasets, and the only place you get a dataset of "this visual/sensor input=this purchase" is if someone is cataloging a dataset correlating the two...

Which Amazon could have done by simply putting the sensor system in place and correlating the purchase data from the cashiers with the sensor tracking of the customer. Just do that for as long as you need to build the dataset and test it by having it predict and compare in the background until you reach your preferred ratio. If it fails, you have a ton of market research data as a consolation prize.

But that could take months or years and you don't get to pump your stock until it works, and you don't get to outsource your cashiers while pretending you've made Westworld work.

This way, even though Amazon takes a little bit of a PR bloody nose, they still have the benefit of any stock increase this already produced, the shareholders got their dividends.

Which I suppose is a lot of words to say:

[orchisailsa]

It came to me in a dream.

[racecarart]

I believe in Ending H supremacy.

[shaydh]

need an excuse to move out of the country again

[quinnleyaeroraen]

Playing the eternal cylinder be like

The trebhum ocs referenced

[westiec]

made a thing

Happy Agender Pride Day! — if you do not vibe with your gender you actually do not have to pick a new one

[ID: Just Walk Out meme edited with a bold all-caps GENDERS overlaid atop the list of things you can walk out of and the skeleton holding an agender pride flag.]

[discountreactionimagewarehouse]

JUST WALK OUT.

[ssiegfriedsystem]

i made this a while ago

[power-chords]

IF IT SUCKS… HIT DA BRICKS!!

[author-does-art]

You Can Leave!

//Snap Team's The Third Tower Part Two was uh... it sure was something! :'D //Some say Esc is still running to this day...

[aierie--dragonslayer]

THERE IT IS!

[masamunemaniac]

What would happen if she walked without stopping?

(Original art: https://www.tumblr.com/clefdesoll/655120658928451584/heres-my-animation-for-june-i-was-overdue-for-a)

[tirsynni]

Welp. More work/RL stuff. Whee.

So had a LOVELY meeting with Bad Boss today. It was supposed to be a GOOD meeting, according to Not AS Bad Boss, only for Bad Boss to completely derail it. It was supposed to be a discussion regarding my work expectations and the like, as I don’t... actually... have... an actual fucking job description. Literally. No job description. No clarification regarding my position at all. It seems so far like Bad Boss is making it up as she goes.

One minute she tells me that I’m not supposed to do such-and-such, and then later she tells me that OF COURSE I’m supposed to do such-and-such. I have a witness for the last one. Not AS Bad Boss was flailing alongside me. My work expectations change by the day, by the week, etc. I never have any idea what I’m supposed to be doing. Bad Bss literally made a comment today about not knowing what training I had in my previous job but she was sure it didn’t apply in this one. Why did she reference a previous job and its training? Because I’m not trained in this current job.Seriously! Just enough to be certified! Nothing about the specific job!

I started my work day with her lecturing me on complete and utter bullshit. She said so many wrong details it was insane. She lectured me on personalizing client care when I’ve had to fight her in the past to actually personalize client goals! It was an insane meeting and she refused to listen to me when I attempted to correct her. There is never correcting this woman. She is 100% sure she is always right. Always. It’s fucking awful.

There’s a job opening this week. It is in a good field, the boss knows me, and I would love to make the switch. It would be a paycut, which is why I held back. However, my dad is doing much better, so I don’t need to worry about flying up as much. (Hopefully, he continues this and he reaches his year of remission!!!!) My middle kitty’s vet bills still absolutely suck but her other expenses are better. It might mean I need to stall off buying the Switch for myself for an early birthday present, but if I get this job? It would be worth it.

If I don’t? I’m going to say fuck it and keep job hunting. The job market sucks here, but honestly? Everything pretty much sucks job-wise at the moment. If I had my own place, I might be able to just make my money petsitting, but ah well.

[lauralot89]

you know in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when Daniel Craig knows that he's gonna die if he goes in Stellan Skarsgård's house but he does it anyway so as not to be rude

that was so true

[the-iron-shoulder]

This this this

also the fact that I can say no to things! Like, I don’t have to watch movies anymore! (I know I can’t be the only person whose brand of neurodivergence makes movies just Feel Weird And Uncomfortable, and I didn’t have words for that as a kid, let alone the autonomy to say “I don’t want to watch that movie with you, I’ll catch up with you later.”)

but yeah, the ability to apply the wisdom of Da Share Zone (just walk out! You can leave!) is such a blessing…

People make a lot of good "thank god I'm not a kid anymore" posts about like school bullies or homework or puberty. But actually my #1 top of the "thank god I'm not a kid anymore" list is the fact that I can leave the event when I want to.

Any event I'm at! I can say "okay well I'm tired I'm going home goodbye." Could not do that shit as a kid. If you're a kid it's like yeah you will sit here at your brother's soccer game in the cold for the next 1.5 hours. You will sit here at your sibling's football practice. You will stay at this BBQ until the whole family is done with the BBQ. You are stuck at the mall until mom finds the pants she needs. You are stuck at the grocery store. No we don't know how long. You are stuck at band practice. It's running late but you're not allowed to leave. You are stuck at the party that the adults said you're leaving soon but they keep talking to these 2 people who showed up late. What the Fuck.

And that shit is on top of having homework.