Amazon hopes to replace 600,000 US workers with robots, according to leaked documents

https://www.theverge.com/news/803257/amazon-robotics-automation-replace-600000-human-jobs

201 points · 29 comments · view on lemmy.world

29 Comments

aarch0x40@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 329d

The rich get richer. The poor get poorer.

BeefandSquints@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 42 pts · 329d

Will those robots also be their new customers?

Grimy@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 329d

Warehouse jobs are garbage and should be automated. Amazon should also be nationalized. The problem isn't automation, it is, as always, capitalism.

circuitfarmer@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 329d (1 reply)
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Afaithfulnihilist@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 21 pts · 329d

They will cater more and more to each other until they turn inward and start hoarding and rearranging resources into their compartmentalized cocoons while they attempt to transform their empires into launch pads that will let them escape the planet like some sort of fungal spore to infect and consume another world.
They will fail to develop a way to sustain humans off world and will leave behind a polluted hellscape of toxic nonsense and dysfunction.

I hope someone still has the resources to pour concrete over the entrances of these billionaire fallout shelters when the front finally falls off the whole yacht.

patatas@sh.itjust.works · 27 pts · 329d (3 replies)

So... there goes Amazon's argument that they should ever get preferential tax treatment due to all the jobs they supposedly create

HasturInYellow@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 329d (1 reply)

What? No silly. They made those arguments and won those cases so they get preferential taxes for the next 300 years. Regardless of the changing needs of the country or the economy.

Inaminate_Carbon_Rod@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 328d

Don’t forget how many robot manufacturer jobs they’ve just created! They need more tax breaks for that!

MOAR!!!!`

bambam@piefed.social · 3 pts · 329d

They didn't to promise to create them all at once.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 20 pts · 329d (1 reply)

LOL...like they replaced AWS IT with AI last week? How's that working out?

Sundiata@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 329d

get rekt, we need more blackouts.

nul42@lemmy.ca · 13 pts · 329d

They hope to replace customers with robots too.

HubertManne@piefed.social · 12 pts · 329d (1 reply)

no worries as the robots are all controlled from aws.

Sundiata@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 329d

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent aws internet connection?"

Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 329d (1 reply)

Well they’re not invested in all of these robotic companies and automation companies because they want to sell the tech to their competitors.

It’s clear that the goal is to have warehouses be more automated, and for deliveries to be handled by things like Zoox.

IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 329d

And honestly, this isn't just limited to Amazon's warehouses. All companies that end up with huge warehouse and distribution centers have always been striving to automate as much of the process as possible. Amazon just has the capital to push the tech with in house resources, instead of having to contract it out.

jordanlund@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 329d

How many workers will they need to maintain, repair and retrieve robots?

tidderuuf@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 329d

Day turk er jawbs!

waldo_was_here@piefed.social · 7 pts · 329d
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kibiz0r@midwest.social · 7 pts · 329d (5 replies)

I should be cynical about AI and labor displacement, but…

Does anyone actually want to wreck their bodies by walking all over a giant warehouse and lifting heavy unwieldy objects?

Now the robots will do all of that.

We’ll just need some humans to uh… follow them around the warehouse… and move them when they break down. (This is totally different, you see.)

And do the original task that glitched it out. And dodge all of the other robots while doing so. And be paid less because we have robots now.

njm1314@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 329d

I don't think it's the issue of people wanting to do that job as much as people wanting to, you know, afford groceries and rent

FishFace@piefed.social · 2 pts · 329d (2 replies)

I don't think walking wrecks your body, it's what we evolved to do for days on end

MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 329d

It's the "You aren't allowed to stop and rest and your feet are pounding a ground that is rigid concrete with absolutely zero give" that gets ya. =\

njm1314@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 329d
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SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 329d

I guess you don't work in a warehouse, but there is not much manual lifting.

MSids@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 329d

When all of the jobs are gone, who will have any money to put in Prime orders?

foodandart@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 329d

This makes me SO glad I do not use Amazon.

_stranger_@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 329d

Those 600,000 workers should quit right fucking now. See how long Amazon lasts before bezos sets all those robots up himself.

bambam@piefed.social · 6 pts · 329d

I uninstalled my Amazon app a month ago, and I haven't missed it. It started as an experiment to see if I can live without it. Seems I can.

#amazon

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 328d

Don't worry, everyone. 95% of our jobs will be replaced with robots.

And I know what you're thinking. Yes, the money will rightly be given to the billionaires. See, nothing to worry about. Nothing. So glad Trump is doing nothing but deregulation LLM's and attacking workers rights.

vane@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 329d

They talk about some of this stuff here where they present new robot that can "touch" things. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X4CU3jmw-g

mandatstory@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 329d
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Dorkyd68@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 329d

Buy local, Amazon is a cancer on this earth