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Amazon will stop accepting new customers for Mechanical Turk(techcrunch.com)
96 points by bookofjoe 4 hours ago | 29 comments
CodesInChaos 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> In a snake-eating-its-own-tail irony, a 2023 analysis found that between 33% and 46% of workers on the platform were using large language models to complete their tasks,

I assume AI use by workers has risen to the point where it renders Mechanical Turk pointless.

skt5 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

This likely means those consuming the outputs of Mechanical Turk don't have a good way to measure the value (aka quality) of the outputs.

If they did - then they shouldn't care whether it's a human or a LLM. And if it's a LLM - then the cost will roughly correlate to the MIN(cost of the LLM, cost of a human) to do the task.

AndrewOMartin a few seconds ago | parent [-]

I think the "state of the art" of measuring the quality of outputs was to send the same task to multiple "agents" and only accept answers if over a certain amount agree. With some human review and reputation scoring sprinkled on top. It was a while since I was in this field though

moralestapia 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah, I was doing this kind of Artificial Artificial Artificial Intelligence back in 2012 to make some extra $$$. Glad they finally "patched" that hole ^^.

pc86 2 hours ago | parent [-]

You were using LLMs in 2012?

subarctic 42 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Artificial AI = stuff like mechanical turk where they get humans to do stuff computers can't do and make it look like it's "AI"

Artificial Artificial Intelligence = using computers to do mechanical turk jobs

moralestapia 34 minutes ago | parent [-]

You wrote the same thing twice, hehe.

But the point gets across.

simlevesque 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They were faking artificial intelligence by using real individuals.

pixel_popping 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Fiverr-5.5 was the leading model back then.

moralestapia an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Not LLMs. (Useful) LLMs came to the market around 2022.

root-parent 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I can see a high value startup, that will provide Human Intelligence with real Humans, locked in the room, with no network, books, LLMs and monitored 24x7 with cameras.

mcmcmc 8 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

[delayed]

HoldOnAMinute 33 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Please enjoy each task equally

nullsmack 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I had no idea this was still around.

It helped me buy a Battlefield 2 "Special Forces" expansion pack back in the day.

Well, I could've bought it either way but buying it didn't impact my normal income because I did Mechanical Turk in my free time enough to get it.

obblekk an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Maybe the most unambiguous "ai will automate work" example I've seen yet.

Absolutely does not imply the workers are automated since they can now use the current models to do more complex tasks at the vast number of new AI training data startups.

Turk was simply not designed for greater complexity tasks and so much of their lunch has been eaten by startups specifically built to collect AI training data.

leohonexus an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Where do I find participants for my user studies then?

josefritzishere 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's a shame. Mechanical Turk works better than any AI.

xandrius 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's still AI, just a different type.

CodesInChaos 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The Actually Indian kind?

mghackerlady 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Hey, maybe they're Indonesian!

expedition32 10 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Ever been to Singapore? Their apartments have a room for a Indonesian maid.

Never underestimate just how cheap human life is!

pwython 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I thought they were Turkish.

shshsjsj 39 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

mild racism, needs to be reported

aswegs8 35 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

It's a joke

Faaak 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

you can call the police

HoldOnAMinute 31 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

India is not a race, therefore this is not racist.

brokensegue 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

personally, i've never had good luck with MT's quality.

baggachipz 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They moved all the Mechanical Turk workers over to robot and autotaxi piloting.

teddyh 2 hours ago | parent [-]

And monitoring of “cashier-free” grocery stores.