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Amazon Go is a go:
The first clue that there's something unusual about Amazon's store of the future hits you right at the front door. It feels as if you are entering a subway station. A row of gates guard the entrance to the store, known as Amazon Go, allowing in only people with the store's smartphone app.
Inside is an 1,800-square foot mini-market packed with shelves of food that you can find in a lot of other convenience stores — soda, potato chips, ketchup. It also has some food usually found at Whole Foods, the supermarket chain that Amazon owns.
But the technology that is also inside, mostly tucked away out of sight, enables a shopping experience like no other. There are no cashiers or registers anywhere. Shoppers leave the store through those same gates, without pausing to pull out a credit card. Their Amazon account automatically gets charged for what they take out the door.
[...] There were a little over 3.5 million cashiers in the United States in 2016 — and some of their jobs may be in jeopardy if the technology behind Amazon Go eventually spreads. For now, Amazon says its technology simply changes the role of employees — the same way it describes the impact of automation on its warehouse workers.
Also at TechCrunch.
Previously: Amazon Go: It's Like Shoplifting
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Monday January 22 2018, @11:24PM (1 child)
It will be difficult to see what the *new* jobs will be until they arrive. It would be like trying to predict the iPhone; if it could have been done, it would have happened sooner. Of course, some trends can be predicted to continue, such as an increase in healthcare. I don't know what sort of unskilled jobs will become available in that field, but as that segment of the economy grows, there will likely be new jobs at all skill levels.
In tech, we are likely due for society's first generation of telephone sanitizers. Some day, we might look back and declare it a useless field, but until then, I think it's an idea whose arrival is due.
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(Score: 2) by vux984 on Tuesday January 23 2018, @04:07AM
It will be difficult to see what the *new* jobs will be until they arrive.
That's not terribly helpful for the waves of people being displaced right now.
The local McDonalds has order kiosks and reduced human order takers to one from 4, the local grocery store has converted all but one of the express checkouts to self-checkout, replacing 5 cashiers with 1, its happening at walmart, it's happening at home depot. Its just getting started and its already noticeable.
Those people are displaced and looking for work now. If the replacement jobs aren't already showing up, then we have a problem.