Amazon ditches Just Walk Out cashier-less tech over privacy concerns and human labor questions

Amazon is abandoning its "Just Walk Out" technology that allowed shoppers to leave stores without checking out, after finding it relied on 1,000 remote human contractors in India rather than pure AI.

The "Just Walk Out" system used cameras and sensors to track what shoppers took, but needed humans to actually process the data.

Amazon will switch to using "Dash Carts" with scanners and screens instead, though privacy concerns remain.

Critics questioned the "Just Walk Out" tech's reliance on cheap outsourced labor rather than local jobs, and invasive data collection practices.

A 2021 lawsuit accused Amazon of secretly selling customer in-store behavior data to Starbucks for profit without informing shoppers.