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Comment by tyfon | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how long it will take before they employ regression algorithms to screen those entering the shop and deny those deemed "not safe".

They would probably be like the police crime prevention algorithms in that they would inherently be biased towards the same prejudices as the humans in such jobs. Profile a specific group of people and that group will be arrested more than those not in that group and the algorithms will pick that up.

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Amazon only lets you in if they have your credit card on file - so they know your purchase history and can guess at your credit limits. It really doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from or what you look like.

Yes, for now. I know I'm rather pessimistic, but I don't think it will stop there.

The credit card part is probably a dream scenario for banks though, to only let people into shops that have an active credit line and not accept cash.

And then you have the problem of bias towards groups of people in the credit scoring regressions.

It's already here. People in Xinjiang need to scan their ID to enter a supermarket.

Yeah, but we all expect that sort of thing of China. The concern is mostly over it coming to the US. (I was going to say "and the UK and other places", but honestly, I would kind of expect this of the UK, too.)

Why would it be needed? If someone enters with a credit card on file you can charge anything broken or taken out.

I just realized that Amazon Go stores are (designed to be) theft-resistant, anyone want to sneak something under their shirt, well, doesn't matter, the cameras still saw it and will still charge them.

It would make a funny gag, I imagine the store employees would still approach you if you did the above, because they also won't have overriden their if X then Y programming.

When some friends and I visited the Amazon Go store in Seattle, we tried multiple different ways to fool the cameras, such as putting the bag over the item on the shelf, or picking it up from the shelf, placing it back on the wrong aisle, and then another person picking it up. We mentioned it openly to the employees. Employees in the store couldn't care less, they were just busy restocking and making the aisles look organized. There must have been human review of our movements on camera though, because my friends who didn't mess around got their receipts immediately when they left the shop whereas mine took half an hour to arrive.

You need to scan an amazon app generated QR code to enter. Your credit card is chargeable once you enter, it's impossible to steal.

Well, it's not impossible. People have done it.

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