amazon - Tech News from Simmons Systems

Tech News from Simmons Systems

amazon

A collection of 423 posts

Amazon Destroys Rare Books to Feed AI Training Data Needs

Amazon, the company that began as an online bookseller, is purchasing rare books, cutting off their spines, and scanning them to train its AI models, according to a report from 404 Media. The outlet placed a tracking device inside a rare book and followed it to an Amazon facility in

Amazon's Twitch Enforces AI Training by Default, Sparking Creator Backlash

Twitch now uses its creators' livestreams and videos to train Amazon's generative AI models by default, and the decision ignites swift backlash from the streaming community. Streamers express frustration that they must manually opt out rather than give explicit consent, raising concerns that many creators unknowingly surrender

Amazon Texas Data Center Power Plant Could Become Nation's Worst Polluter

An Amazon-owned data center project in Pecos County, Texas, is drawing scrutiny over its plans to build a massive natural gas power plant that could become one of the country's worst polluters. The plant, known as GW Ranch, features 35 natural-gas turbines designed to generate 7.65 gigawatts

Amazon Traces NPM Supply Chain Attacks to North Korean Hackers

Amazon attributes a series of high-profile supply chain attacks targeting the NPM ecosystem to Sapphire Sleet, a North Korean threat actor also known as BlueNoroff. The campaign begins with the trojanizing of the typo-crypto package in March 2025 and escalates dramatically with the compromise of widely used packages like debug,

Amazon Begins Winding Down Mechanical Turk After Two Decades

Amazon confirms that Mechanical Turk will close to new customers on July 30, 2026, marking the beginning of the end for the pioneering crowdsourcing service. AWS states that existing customers can continue using the platform as normal, and the company plans to keep investing in security and availability. However, Amazon

Amazon Q AI Assistant Saves $260 Million and 4,500 Developer-Years

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reveals that the company's internal AI assistant, Amazon Q, dramatically reduces software upgrade times and delivers massive annual efficiency gains.

Amazon and Salesforce Lead Latest Wave of Major Tech Layoffs

Major technology companies continue to slash their workforces as Amazon and Salesforce implement significant job cuts. These layoffs reflect an ongoing industry trend of restructuring and cost reduction.

Tech Stock Slump Raises Broader Economic Concerns

Major technology companies face a historic earnings slump as inflation and rising interest rates squeeze businesses and consumers. Analysts warn that the struggles of these industry heavyweights signal potential trouble ahead for the broader economy.

Anthropic Secures $65 Billion in Series H, Reaches $965B Valuation

Anthropic raises a massive $65 billion in Series H funding, pushing its post-money valuation to $965 billion as enterprise demand for Claude soars. The company plans to use the capital to expand compute capacity and advance AI safety research.

Amazon Scraps Biased AI Recruitment Tool That Penalized Women

Amazon discontinues an internal AI hiring tool after discovering it systematically discriminates against female job applicants due to flawed training data.

Over 150,000 Petitioners Demand Amazon Halt Police Facial Recognition Sales

A coalition of civil rights groups delivers more than 150,000 signatures to Amazon's headquarters, urging the company to stop selling its Rekognition face surveillance technology to police. The campaigners warn that the cheap, accessible tool enables dangerous mass tracking of everyday citizens.

Audible Unveils AI Narration and Translation Tools for Publishers

Audible introduces an integrated AI production system that allows publishers to create audiobooks using over one hundred synthetic voices. The platform also plans to launch a beta translation feature later this year to convert English audiobooks into four major languages.

Amazon's Quiet Covariant AI Acqui-Hire Shakes Up Robotics Sector

Amazon recently executes an acqui-hire of Covariant AI, a strategic move that industry experts find highly significant. Meanwhile, the robotics industry sees continued massive investment growth and new humanoid robot pilot preparations.

Amazon Partners With Covariant to Expand AI Robot Capabilities

Amazon licenses Covariant's robotic foundation models to enhance how its massive fleet of warehouse robots sees, reasons, and acts. The partnership aims to improve safety and efficiency for employees while accelerating supply chain automation.