The Humans Behind the AI Curtain 🤖🎩🪄

AI promised to automate your grocery run—but surprise! It was a thousand people in India watching your every avocado grab.

Some days I fear AI will take over the world and billions will be jobless. I recently learned Amazon’s AI was just a bunch of dudes in India pressing “yes” or “no” on a list of groceries via remote viewing thousand of miles away. I think we’re good for now.

In the great wizardry of Silicon Valley smoke and mirrors, Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology stood as a gleaming example of our glorious AI future—where you could stroll into a store, toss items in your bag, and, like magic, walk out without ever saying a word to a cashier. I had two of these Amazon Go stores open nearby my apartment in Manhattan in late 2019. I was blown away by the simplicity and ease of grocery shopping at their new stores. In and out. When COVID showed its ugly face in 2020, I thought that Amazon was going to win the retail game forever and destroy millions of retail jobs. I was worried about the futures for all of those people that may never find a job again. It made shopping for every day items and a quick meal done in all in a quick swipe with your smartphone without ever encountering another human being. Bezos’ magic AI show was going to change things forever and the COVID lockdowns were going to be masterful exhibition for the whole world to see.

Except it wasn’t AI magic. It was 1,000 humans in India reviewing your every move. Was it really that simple and stupid? Yup.

Turns out, “Just Walk Out” was less HAL 9000 and more “Mechanical Turk with extra steps.” The retail giant touted the system as powered by advanced AI and machine learning. But behind the scenes, a sizable chunk of those shopping trips were monitored by an army of low-paid workers validating transactions and fixing AI misfires in real time. Think of it as a high-tech Wizard of Oz, if the wizard was also doing data annotation for minimum wage.

According to reports, roughly 70% of the transactions needed human review. That’s not just a little “AI assistance”—that’s a full-blown human-powered operation being passed off as cutting-edge tech. Amazon claims the workers were “just labeling data” to improve the system. But if you’re consistently relying on manual intervention, is your AI even walking on its own?

This whole thing isn’t new, either. Back in the early days of AI, companies leaned on “human-in-the-loop” strategies to teach their models. But what’s new is the way these companies market the tech—splashy demos, overhyped press releases, and vague language that makes it seem like HAL has it covered when it’s actually some folks in India

Now, Amazon is quietly walking back the technology from its larger Fresh grocery stores in the U.S., swapping “Just Walk Out” for “Dash Carts”—essentially smart shopping carts that let you scan as you go. It’s more honest, less sci-fi, and doesn’t require a human safety net watching your every cereal box grab.

“Just Walk Out” still exists in smaller Amazon Go stores and third-party retailers, but the reveal has opened a much-needed conversation about “AI-washing”—where companies slap the AI label on anything with an algorithm and hope no one asks questions.

This also mirrors the recent scandal at Builder.ai, a now-bankrupt company that sold an “AI assistant” named Natasha, which turned out to be a group of Indian engineers answering queries manually. In both cases, the companies weren’t lying as much as they were hoping you wouldn’t ask where the sausage—or in this case, the server logs—are made.

In the end, what we’ve got isn’t a fully autonomous future—it’s a duct-taped demo of one. And maybe that’s fine. But let’s at least be honest about it.

So next time someone tells you AI is taking all the jobs, remind them: it still needs a thousand people watching you buy almond milk.

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Welcome to the Punch Yourself in the Face Economy, where your cashier is an algorithm…until it’s not.