We’ve all heard about the looming threat of artificial intelligence replacing truck drivers and delivery people. Most of us just laugh it off, as if we’ll never see such a thing in our lifetime. What if I told you that right now, as a participating Amazon Flex partner, you are helping to train the very AI that will eventually replace you.
Your Data Feeds the AI
It’s already public knowledge that Amazon uses shopper data to create and train artificial intelligence. Amazon has created such a sophisticated AI that it can predict what people within a certain area will buy before they do it.
Recently Microsoft launched an AI that helps developers write computer code. They acquired the training data from public code uploaded to GitHub. The users of GitHub had no idea that their code would one day help Microsoft to train an AI and many of them are outraged about it.
The point is that it’s not uncommon for companies to take advantage of their users data that they’ve been collecting for years and feed it into an AI. This is why collecting data on the internet is widely considered as the “New Gold”. Microsoft will likely make a lot of money from their programming AI and the users who unknowingly provided the training data will not be compensated at all.
You see where I’m going with this?
It’s likely that a very similar thing will happen with Amazon Flex. All of the data collected from Amazon Flex and it’s drivers will help train an AI that will make human drivers obsolete. It’s not some science fiction fantasy, it’s probably already happening.
The Magic Show
AI’s that can code and robots that can deliver packages?! Sounds almost like futuristic non-sense or magic. Well, Amazon agrees, according to NPR the code name for Prime Now was “Houdini” and the original name for Amazon Flex was “Rabbit” because it’s “along the magic theme”.
Indeed, AI is woven through every part of an Amazon purchase, from the website to the warehouses to the actual delivery to your doorstep.
npr.org
In fact, when you call Amazon Flex support many of them still refer to the Amazon Flex app as the “The Rabbit App”. Almost as if Amazon can pull a rabbit out of the hat at will. Is that all drivers are to them? Props in a stage performance? Just like in a real magic show the rabbits don’t even know that they’re a part of it.
What drivers don’t seem to realize is that Amazon is collecting all of the data that they can while you’re making deliveries. Just like they do with shopper data, they are most likely feeding Amazon Flex delivery driver data into an AI.
Why would they do this and what’s the final act in the magic show?
The Grand Finale
Let’s face it, Amazon doesn’t care about Flex drivers. As drivers we’ve known this. The latest article from Bloomberg demonstrates it to the world where drivers are literally getting fired by an AI with little to no human intervention. What these articles don’t do is ask the question “Why?”. Why does Amazon treat it’s drivers this way?
It’s because delivery drivers will eventually be replaced by robots and Amazon knows it.
The final act in the magic show? It’s to make human delivery drivers *poof* disappear.
You see, as Amazon Flex drivers by participating in the program, we’ve been providing training data for the very AI that will eventually replace us.
Don’t laugh.. this is the robot that will eventually take your job. It was designed specifically to be non-threating looking and to blend in with the environment. It’s way too cute and ridiculous to be concerned about.. r.. right?
Wrong. Amazon is dead serious about their delivery robot called Scout. So much so that according to The Verge they’ve created a simulated “Matrix” like world with 3D models and real-life textures.
“We can run thousands of deliveries in simulation overnight”
-Scout VP Sean Scott
How do you think Amazon is able to simulate thousands of deliveries to help train its robot? It’s very likely that they’re using all of that data they’ve been collecting from Amazon Flex drivers.
As the Scout VP Sean Scott goes on to say:
“We have a ladder to the Moon… but we’ve only made it to the first rung of the ladder,”
What he left out is that the ladder was built on the backs of real people and they weren’t compensated for it. Once Amazon makes it far enough up ladder there won’t be any room left for human drivers.
Conclusion
Amazon Flex isn’t about last mile delivery at all. It’s about something way more valuable and that’s data collection. Amazon Flex delivery drivers, by participating in the program, have been unknowingly helping to provide data for the artificial intelligence that will eventually replace them and they’re not being compensated for it.
“Data Collection” should be added to the Amazon Flex job description and drivers should be making more since they’re basically helping to create and providing data for a piece of software that will one day become very valuable to Amazon.
Without millions of Amazon Flex drivers making deliveries there’s no way Amazon could accurately, as they boast “run thousands of deliveries in simulation overnight”.
It’s time to:
