Amazon’s first cashier-less supermarket opens to the public in downtown Seattle today - a move that could revolutionise high-street shopping.
Customers are then charged for the items through the Amazon app on their smartphone, which they have to scan on an automated turnstile to enter and exit the store.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_full_width","fid":"105719","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]
A combination of “computer vision, machine learning algorithms and sensors” are used to accurately track which items shoppers pick up, says the newpaper. Any products that are put back on shelves are not added to the customer’s bill.
Gianna Puerini, vice president of Amazon Go, says the store worked very well throughout the one-year test phase - when only Amazon employees were allowed to shop there - thanks to four years of prior legwork, reports BBC News. Puerini added: “This technology didn’t exist [until then] - it was really advancing the state of the art of computer vision and machine learning.”
However, The Guardian says there have been claims that the technology did not always work as expected during the trial.
One source told the newspaper that the AI systems had difficulties identifying customers with similar body types, and that children had confused the tracking technology by moving products to different shelves.
Amazon has yet to reveal whether it plans to open more Go stores, either in the US or abroad.
-
Political cartoons for January 10Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include a warning shot, a shakedown, and more
-
Courgette and leek ijeh (Arabic frittata) recipeThe Week Recommends Soft leeks, tender courgette, and fragrant spices make a crisp frittata
-
Trump’s power grab: the start of a new world order?Talking Point Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the US president has shown that arguably power, not ‘international law’, is the ultimate guarantor of security
-
Will regulators put a stop to Grok’s deepfake porn images of real people?Today’s Big Question Users command AI chatbot to undress pictures of women and children
-
Most data centers are being built in the wrong climateThe explainer Data centers require substantial water and energy. But certain locations are more strained than others, mainly due to rising temperatures.
-
The dark side of how kids are using AIUnder the Radar Chatbots have become places where children ‘talk about violence, explore romantic or sexual roleplay, and seek advice when no adult is watching’
-
Why 2025 was a pivotal year for AITalking Point The ‘hype’ and ‘hopes’ around artificial intelligence are ‘like nothing the world has seen before’
-
AI griefbots create a computerized afterlifeUnder the Radar Some say the machines help people mourn; others are skeptical
-
The robot revolutionFeature Advances in tech and AI are producing android machine workers. What will that mean for humans?
-
Separating the real from the fake: tips for spotting AI slopThe Week Recommends Advanced AI may have made slop videos harder to spot, but experts say it’s still possible to detect them
-
Inside a Black community’s fight against Elon Musk’s supercomputerUnder the radar Pollution from Colossal looms over a small Southern town, potentially exacerbating health concerns
