Amazon Kills Off Mechanical Turk Amid AI Growth

Amazon has announced that it will be shutting down Mechanical Turk, a platform used by gig workers for completing tasks that computers cannot do. The service, which was launched in 2005, allowed humans to transcribe audio recordings and complete other tasks for as little as a few cents per task.

The decision comes as artificial intelligence (AI) has become more advanced and capable of handling many of the same tasks that Mechanical Turk was designed to assist with. In fact, a 2023 study found that between 33% and 46% of Mechanical Turk workers used large-language models to complete tasks on the platform.

Gig workers are now completing similar tasks for companies that train AI, such as data-labeling gigs offered by companies like Uber. There is also a market for selling data or documents to AI training companies.