Amazon's cloud hit by two outages caused by AI tools last year'

"Amazon's huge cloud computing arm reportedly experienced at least two outages caused by its own artificial intelligence tools, raising questions about the company's embrace of AI as it lays off human employees. A 13-hour interruption to Amazon Web Services' (AWS) operations in December was caused by an AI agent autonomously choosing to delete and then recreate a part of its environment, the Financial Times reported. AWS, which provides vital infrastructure for much of the internet, suffered several outages last year."

"One incident, in October, downed dozens of sites for hours and prompted discussion over the concentration of online services on infrastructure owned by a few massive companies. AWS has won 189 UK government contracts worth 1.7bn since 2016, the Guardian reported in October. The AI-caused outages were smaller events, said the company, and only one affected customer-facing services. Amazon confirmed plans to cut 16,000 jobs in January, after it laid off 14,000 staff last October."

"In January, its chief executive, Andy Jassy, reportedly said these cuts were about company culture, and not about replacing workers with AI. However, Jassy has previously said that efficiency gains from AI will reduce Amazon's workforce in the coming years, and AI agents will allow it to focus less on rote work and more on thinking strategically about how to improve customer experiences."

At least two outages at Amazon Web Services were reportedly triggered by AI tools, including a 13-hour December interruption where an AI agent deleted and then recreated part of its environment. AWS experienced multiple outages last year, including an October event that knocked dozens of sites offline for hours. AWS holds numerous UK government contracts worth over £1.7bn since 2016. Amazon confirmed large-scale job cuts following earlier layoffs and has linked AI efficiency gains to future workforce reductions. Amazon described the AI involvement as coincidental and attributed the incidents to user error, while several experts expressed scepticism about that assessment.

Read at www.theguardian.com