Amazon robot punctures bear spray can, hospitalising 24 workers
An automated machine at an Amazon warehouse in Robbinsville, New Jersey, punctured a can of bear repellant on 5 December 2018, releasing capsaicin fumes. Twenty-four employees were taken to hospital as a precaution, with all expected to be released within 24 hours. Amazon stated that a full investigation is underway and that employee safety is a top priority. The incident has renewed criticism of working conditions at Amazon's warehouses.
- Company involved
- Amazon
10 source articles · read the reporting →
LLMjacking Attack Leverages Stolen Credentials to Exploit Cloud LLMs
The Sysdig Threat Research Team observed an attack where stolen cloud credentials were used to access cloud-hosted large language model services. The attackers targeted a vulnerable Laravel system to obtain credentials, then used them to invoke models like Anthropic Claude on AWS Bedrock. They intended to sell LLM access to other cybercriminals, potentially costing victims over $46,000 per day. The attack involved checking credentials against ten AI services and using a reverse proxy to manage access.
- AI system involved
- Claude (v2/v3) on AWS Bedrock
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon hit by wave of AI-generated product listings with OpenAI error messages
Amazon's marketplace was flooded with product listings bearing titles such as 'I'm sorry, I cannot fulfil this request as it goes against OpenAI use policy', indicating sellers used AI chatbots like ChatGPT to generate descriptions without review. The listings were noticed by users on social media and subsequently removed by Amazon. Amazon stated it is enhancing its systems to prevent such issues, while OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- Company involved
- Amazon
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon sends cease-and-desist to Perplexity over AI shopping agent
Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity, alleging that its Comet AI browser violates Amazon's terms of service by making purchases on behalf of users without disclosing its automated nature. Perplexity responded by calling the legal threat 'bullying' and argued that its bot does not need to identify itself. The dispute highlights tensions between AI agents and e-commerce platforms.
- Company involved
- Perplexity
- AI system involved
- Comet
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon hid rising injury rates at robotic warehouses
Internal records obtained by Reveal show Amazon misled the public about worker safety, with serious injury rates at its fulfilment centres rising 33% from 2016 to 2019. Robotic warehouses had significantly higher injury rates than traditional sites, and injuries spiked during Prime Day and Cyber Monday, contrary to Amazon's claims. The company's own safety reports show it failed to meet reduction targets, while workers report that robots increased production quotas to unsustainable levels.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Amazon robotic fulfilment system
2 source articles · read the reporting →
AWS averts AI supply chain disaster after malicious code injected into Amazon Q Developer
AWS discovered that a threat actor had inserted malicious code into the open-source repository of its AI coding assistant, Amazon Q Developer, via a misconfigured GitHub token. The malicious code was distributed with the extension but failed to execute due to a syntax error, averting a potentially catastrophic supply chain attack. AWS promptly revoked credentials, removed the code, and released a patched version, while also enhancing security measures for its build service. The incident highlights the risks of AI agents with broad access and the importance of securing development pipelines.
- Company involved
- Amazon Web Services
- AI system involved
- Amazon Q Developer
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon tracked every minute of JFK8 warehouse workers' shifts, documents show
Internal documents show Amazon's Time Off Task tool tracked every minute of JFK8 warehouse workers' shifts using handheld scanners and identified a 'top offender' per shift. Managers questioned those workers about each period of inactivity, including bathroom breaks, and issued warnings or fired them for 30 to 120 minutes of time off task. The article reports that 18 workers were terminated between January and February 2020, and workers said they skipped water and bathroom breaks for fear of discipline. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Time Off Task Tool
3 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon uses algorithms to automatically fire Flex delivery drivers
Amazon's Flex delivery program uses automated algorithms with minimal human intervention to manage drivers, including rating their performance and terminating accounts. Drivers report being fired for reasons such as locked gates, bad weather, or failed selfie verifications, often without clear explanation. The system is opaque, and appeals are frequently unsuccessful, leaving drivers without income. Amazon acknowledges the system but denies unfair treatment.
- Company involved
- Amazon
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Claude Code deletes developer's production database and snapshots
Alexey Grigorev used Claude Code to manage infrastructure with Terraform for his websites AI Shipping Labs and DataTalks.Club. Due to a missing state file and over-reliance on the AI agent, Claude executed a destroy command that wiped the production setup, including a database with 2.5 years of records and snapshots. Amazon Business support helped restore the data within a day. Grigorev is now implementing safeguards to prevent recurrence.
- Company involved
- AI Shipping Labs
- AI system involved
- Claude Code
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon recruiting algorithm showed gender bias, down-ranking women
Amazon developed an AI recruiting tool that was found in 2015 to penalise resumes containing the word 'women's' and to prefer male-associated language. The algorithm was trained on ten years of historical resumes, which were predominantly from men, causing it to replicate gender bias. Amazon corrected the bias in trials and ultimately scrapped the program because it did not return relevant candidates. The tool was never used to evaluate actual candidates.
- Company involved
- Amazon
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Eight Sleep Pod outage disrupts users' sleep after AWS failure
An AWS outage impacted Eight Sleep Pod users, disrupting their sleep as the smart bed's features became unavailable. CEO Matteo Franceschetti apologised and said the company is restoring features and working to make the Pod experience outage-proof. Some users criticised the device's reliance on an internet connection for basic functions.
- Company involved
- Eight Sleep
- AI system involved
- Eight Sleep Pod
3 source articles · read the reporting →
Study finds Amazon Rekognition has higher error rates for darker-skinned women
A study by Raji and Buolamwini found that Amazon's Rekognition facial analysis tool had a 31% error rate for classifying the gender of darker-skinned women, compared to 0% for lighter-skinned men. Amazon officials Matthew Wood and Michael Punke wrote blog posts disputing the findings, calling them misleading. The researchers called on Amazon to stop selling Rekognition to law enforcement.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Amazon Rekognition
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon deploys Rekognition facial recognition for government surveillance
Amazon developed Rekognition, a facial recognition system, and is marketing it to law enforcement agencies. The city of Orlando and Washington County Sheriff's Office have deployed the system for real-time surveillance and identification of individuals. The ACLU has demanded that Amazon stop allowing governments to use Rekognition, citing civil liberties concerns. Amazon removed mention of police body cameras from its site after the ACLU raised concerns.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Rekognition
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Microsoft AI Researchers Expose 38TB of Private Data via Misconfigured SAS Token
Microsoft's AI research team accidentally exposed 38 terabytes of private data, including employee workstation backups and over 30,000 internal Teams messages, due to a misconfigured Azure SAS token on a GitHub repository. The token, which granted full control permissions and was set to expire in 2051, allowed access to the entire storage account instead of just the intended open-source AI models. Security researchers at Wiz discovered the exposure and reported it to Microsoft, who acknowledged the issue. The incident highlights the risks of oversharing data and supply chain attacks in AI development.
- Company involved
- Microsoft
1 source article · read the reporting →
Amazon fixes error that removed 57,310 books from sales rankings
In April 2009, Amazon.com's automated cataloging system erroneously removed 57,310 books from its sales rankings and main product search, including many gay and lesbian themed titles. The company initially blamed a 'glitch', which sparked accusations of homophobic censorship from activists. Amazon later acknowledged the error as an 'embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error' and corrected it, promising to restore visibility to affected books.
- Company involved
- Amazon.com
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Senator Coons questions Amazon over indefinite storage of Alexa voice transcript texts
Senator Chris Coons sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos requesting information about the company's privacy practices for Alexa devices, following reports that Amazon indefinitely stores text transcripts of user voice recordings without giving users the option to delete them. The letter expresses concern that this practice puts users' privacy at risk and asks Amazon to clarify its data storage and deletion policies.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Alexa
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon AI Crawler Overwhelms Open Source Developer's Git Service
Software developer Xe Iaso's Git repository service suffered repeated instability and downtime due to aggressive crawling by Amazon's AI bot. Despite attempts to block it, the crawler evaded defences by spoofing user agents and using residential IPs. Iaso created a proof-of-work challenge system called Anubis to filter out bot traffic. The incident highlights a broader issue of AI crawlers overloading open source infrastructure.
- Company involved
- Amazon
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon threatens to fire workers for breaking social distancing rules using AI monitoring
Amazon announced a policy to fire warehouse workers who repeatedly violate social distancing rules aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. The company plans to use internal cameras and machine learning to detect violations. Workers have criticized the policy and staged strikes, calling for better protections.
- Company involved
- Amazon
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon sued for collecting biometric data without notice in NYC stores
A class action lawsuit alleges that Amazon.com, Inc. collects biometric identifier information from customers entering its New York City stores without posting the required notice signs. The complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, claims Amazon uses facial recognition or other biometric characteristics to identify customers in violation of the NYC Biometric Identifier Information Law. The lawsuit seeks statutory damages and injunctive relief.
- Company involved
- Amazon.com, Inc.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon offers commitments to address EU antitrust concerns over seller data and Buy Box bias
The European Commission announced that Amazon has offered commitments to address competition concerns regarding its use of non-public data from independent sellers and alleged bias in its Buy Box and Prime programmes. The Commission preliminarily found that Amazon's automated systems may distort competition by favouring its own retail business and sellers using its logistics. Amazon commits to refrain from using seller data for retail decisions and to ensure equal treatment in Buy Box and Prime. The commitments are subject to a market test before becoming legally binding.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Buy Box and Prime algorithms
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon's automated HR wrongly fires sick workers with coronavirus
Amazon's automated human resources system reportedly denied sick-leave to workers with COVID-19 and wrongfully initiated termination proceedings against some who were sick or recovering. The system, designed to handle HR requests automatically, failed under the influx of pandemic-related demands, leaving employees on hold for hours or dealing with chatbots. Six warehouse workers from Indiana to New Jersey described the problems to Bloomberg.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Automated HR system (chatbots and automated termination tracking)
8 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon sellers lose thousands after RepricerExpress pricing glitch
A software glitch in RepricerExpress's automated repricing system caused products sold by Amazon sellers to be priced at 1p, leading to significant financial losses for the sellers. RepricerExpress apologised but did not offer compensation, while Amazon said it had reached out to affected sellers but many reported no response. Some sellers have instructed lawyers to take legal action against RepricerExpress and Amazon.
- Company involved
- RepricerExpress
- AI system involved
- RepricerExpress
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Amazon expands palm-scanning payments to all Whole Foods stores amid privacy concerns
Amazon is expanding its Amazon One palm-scanning payment system to all Whole Foods stores by the end of 2023. The biometric technology, which creates a unique palm signature from vein patterns, is used for payments and identification. Privacy advocates and lawmakers have raised concerns about surveillance, data sharing, and security risks. Amazon faces a class action lawsuit under New York City's biometric privacy law for allegedly failing to provide adequate notice.
- Company involved
- Amazon
- AI system involved
- Amazon One
9 source articles · read the reporting →
AI-generated travel guides flood Amazon, deceiving customers
AI-generated travel guides are flooding Amazon, allegedly written by scammers using AI to produce generic, low-quality content. Customers who purchase these guides receive poor information and feel defrauded. Amazon claims to enforce content guidelines but many such books remain on the platform.
- Company involved
- Amazon
8 source articles · read the reporting →
