(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) An Amazon worker was recently trapped in one of the company’s warehouses by its robotic warehouse shelves, the US Sun reported.
The tech giant uses robotic shelving units to efficiently shuffle products around its warehouses. But now the artificial intelligence is turning on its operators.
According to the Amazon employee, the robots had intentionally trapped him on the warehouse floor.
“The robots at work trap me…it took me like 15 minutes to get out,” the TikToker wrote. The video shows him trying to escape, but each potential exit is cut off by another shelf.
He also claimed that they did it to manipulate him.
“They tried to block me in. These pods are messing with me,” he says in the video as another shelf blocks his path.
The robots had apparently constructed an ever-shifting maze for the worker to find his way through.
Many Tik Tok commentators expressed their concern with the robots, taking this sort of thing as a sign of a future dominated by artificial intelligence. One view called it “a true horror movie,” and others considered the warehouse and crates to be a “fire hazard.”
Another suggested a horror movie title, “Five Nights at Amazon,” based upon the video. Yet another Tik Tok user said it reminded them of the dystopian franchise, “The Maze Runner.”
Of course, Amazon has long made itself a forerunner in the latest tech, so it comes as no surprise that its warehouses are equipped with such machinery. But surely this is just the first story of many that reveal the problematic interactions between man and machine.
Amazon did not return The Sun’s request for comment.
