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Amazon will stop accepting new customers for Mechanical Turk on July 30
15 days ago
- Amazon Mechanical Turk will close to new customers on July 30, 2026, but existing users can continue with no new features added.
- The service, launched in 2005, paid workers small amounts for tasks resistant to automation, like CAPTCHA completion or sentiment analysis.
- It has been central to debates on crowdsourced labor ethics and was used in the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal.
- From 2018, it was marketed for data annotation to train neural networks as part of Amazon's SageMaker AI service.
- Mechanical Turk enabled 'fake-it-till-you-make-it' AI approaches, where human workers powered products marketed as AI, mirroring its namesake hoax.
- A 2023 analysis found 33%-46% of workers used large language models for tasks, raising data reliability and human-in-the-loop questions.
- After Amazon's decision, some on Reddit claim the platform declined years ago due to bots and fraud, predicting eventual full shutdown.
Browser extension to filter out all unknown brands from Amazon search results
14 days ago
- A browser extension called Amazon Brand Filter hides unknown brands from Amazon search results.
- It provides links to a GitHub repository for details and a list of included brands.
- The extension version is 0.8.1, updated on July 7, 2026, developed by topherhead.
- Developer states it does not collect or use user data, and data is not sold or used for unrelated purposes.
Great mysteries of archaeology: an ancient Amazonian world revealed from the sky
6 days ago
- The Llanos de Moxos in Bolivia reveals ancient human-made structures like causeways and canals, visible from the air but hidden on the ground.
- Lidar technology has transformed archaeology by allowing researchers to see beneath the Amazonian forest, uncovering urbanized landscapes of the Casarabe culture (AD500-1400).
- The Casarabe culture featured a hierarchy of settlements, with large primary sites up to 3km², connected by raised causeways and supported by drained-field agriculture.
- Amazonia was historically viewed as inhospitable for large societies, but evidence shows long-term settlement, plant domestication, and engineered landscapes like Amazonian Dark Earths.
- Lidar discoveries across Amazonia, such as in the Upano Valley and Acre, reveal diverse low-density urban societies with planned networks, challenging assumptions about sparse populations.
- Challenges in using lidar include logistical issues in remote areas, but it helps uncover 'lost civilizations' and supports Indigenous land rights.
- Unanswered questions include how Amazonian societies declined, their political organization, and connections with Andean cultures, with ongoing debates about causes.
- Future archaeological work with lidar and other methods may reveal more integrated networks, with potential for thousands of undiscovered structures.
- Amazonian societies managed forests sustainably, creating mosaics of managed landscapes without large-scale deforestation, offering lessons for modern environmental balance.
- The article emphasizes combining lidar with excavations, genetic data, and local knowledge to understand past human experiences and ecological interactions.
Iran's IRGC claims attack on Amazon's main data hub in Bahrain
5 hours ago
- Iran's IRGC claimed its cruise missiles destroyed Amazon's central data infrastructure in Bahrain and targeted US air defense systems.
- Bahraini, US, and Amazon officials have not responded to the claim.
- The reported strikes are part of ongoing direct military confrontations between Iran and the US, which have lasted for ten consecutive days.
- Tehran warned it would target facilities in regional countries used by US forces if US attacks on Iranian infrastructure continue.
- The IRGC stated the attack was in response to US military aggression against civilian facilities in Darkhovin.
- Iran called on the IAEA and UN Security Council to condemn the US attack on the Darkhovin nuclear power plant.
- The IAEA is reviewing reports of the attack but has not issued an independent assessment.
The Amazon tactics that hiked prices across the internet
3 hours ago
- Amazon allegedly pressured suppliers to raise prices on rival retailers' sites to protect its own profitability, using tactics like suppressing product listings and demanding compensation.
- Examples include a table lamp jumping from $24.99 to $39 at Walmart, an air fryer rising from $84.99 to $149.99 on Newegg, and an ice cream maker tripling to $59.99 at Amazon.
- Internal emails show Amazon employees flagged low competitor prices as threats and instructed suppliers to fix pricing or face consequences, often using code words like 'channel optimization'.
- Amazon's algorithmic price-matching and 'game theory' approach led to demands for supplier reimbursement, pushing some to pull products from rivals or increase prices elsewhere.
- California and FTC lawsuits allege Amazon's practices constitute illegal price-fixing, while Amazon defends them as routine retail negotiations that lower consumer prices.
- Former employees and suppliers described pressure to raise competitor prices, with Amazon staff advised to avoid written records of such discussions.

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Amazon will stop accepting new customers for Mechanical Turk on July 30

Browser extension to filter out all unknown brands from Amazon search results

Great mysteries of archaeology: an ancient Amazonian world revealed from the sky

Iran's IRGC claims attack on Amazon's main data hub in Bahrain

The Amazon tactics that hiked prices across the internet