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Amazon Mechanical Turk platform shutdown

Updated 1 time since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-08-28 23:12 UTC → 2026-09-08 12:28 UTC · added ~~removed~~

Amazon has announced the permanent closure of its crowdsourced microtask marketplace, Mechanical Turk, effective September 30, 2026. The platform, which launched in 2005 to provide ‘human intelligence’ for tasks like data labeling, transcription, and surveys, will see its 21-year history come to an end. Following a decision in July 2026 to stop accepting new customers, the shutdown will also impact related services such as SageMaker Ground Truth and Amazon Augmented AI. Amazon stated the decision followed an assessment of its programs, tools, and services, though it did not provide a specific reason for the closure. While Amazon has not explicitly cited artificial intelligence as the ~~reason for the closure,~~ reason, analysts suggest the rise of advanced AI has contributed to the platform’s decline. As AI systems become more capable of performing digital tasks, the boundary between human and machine intelligence has ~~blurred, with reports noting~~ blurred. This shift is significant for AI development teams that ~~some workers were already utilizing large language models~~ have long relied on the platform to ~~complete tasks.~~ source and validate human-generated data through Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs). Regarding the wind-down process, the platform will stop accepting new submissions on the September 30 deadline. Requesters will have until October 30, 2026, to approve or reject pending work and issue bonuses. Transaction histories will remain accessible until January 28, 2027, and users are encouraged to download records and review payment methods before these cutoffs.

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