● Covered by 2 sources · 2 reportsMedium impact2 neutral
Amazon to shut down Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform by September 2026
Key points
- Amazon's Mechanical Turk will close on September 30, 2026.
- MTurk launched in 2005 for human intelligence tasks like data labeling.
- The platform faced decline due to AI advancements and new competitors.
- A 2023 study found up to 46% of MTurk workers used AI for tasks.
Mechanical Turk Closure Announced
Amazon has decided to shut down its Mechanical Turk (MTurk) crowdsourcing platform, with the service ceasing operations on September 30, 2026. This decision follows a regular evaluation of Amazon's programs, tools, and services.
Platform's History and Purpose
Launched in 2005, Mechanical Turk connected a large workforce with digital tasks, known as "Human Intelligence Tasks," that were difficult for computers but simple for humans. These tasks included data labeling, audio transcription, and survey completion. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos referred to it as "artificial artificial intelligence," and it was initially conceived to help label data for Amazon's webstore.
Decline and Market Changes
Despite once serving over 500,000 workers, MTurk has been in decline in recent years. Rapid advancements in AI models and the emergence of new data labeling startups like Scale AI, Mercor, and Prolific have intensified competition. These new platforms recruit workers specifically for training AI models, a service Amazon also marketed MTurk for through its SageMaker service.
Impact on Workers and Data Quality
According to Krista Pawloski of Turkopticon, an employee advocacy group, Amazon's reduced investment in MTurk, coupled with the rise of competing services, led many workers to migrate to other platforms. Concerns have also been raised regarding the quality of data generated on MTurk; a 2023 study indicated that up to 46% of its workers used AI models to complete tasks.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
The daily brief
One email each morning: the day's tech stories, clustered across outlets and summarized. No account needed.
One email a day. Unsubscribe in one click, any time.
Today's brief
Spend a few minutes, get the whole day. Every topic's top stories in one hands-free rundown — listen, watch, or read the transcript.
▶ Play today's brief
New every morning, and the back catalogue is archived by date.
Primary sources
arXiv 2306.07899How outlets covered it
Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a crowdsourcing marketplace for outsourcing tasks to a distributed workforce, will cease operations on September 30. This shutdown impacts businesses and individuals who relied on MTurk for microtask completion, data validation, content moderation, and machine learning development.
Amazon announced it will discontinue its Mechanical Turk (MTurk) crowdsourcing platform by September 30, 2026, after 21 years of operation. The closure reflects the platform's decline amid advancements in AI and increased competition from specialized data labeling services, impacting a significant number of data workers.