Technology
Amazon to shut down Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform in September 2026
The 21-year-old service, which relied on human workers for digital micro-tasks, faced growing competition from modern AI models and specialized data startups.
The short version
- Amazon announced that its crowdsourced work platform, Mechanical Turk, will shut down on September 30, 2026.
- Launched in 2005, the service allowed companies to farm out simple tasks—such as data labeling and transcription—to human workers.
- The platform faced declining usage due to advancing AI capabilities and competition from specialized data startups.
- Businesses relying on the platform are seeking alternative services, while gig workers face the loss of flexible, remote work.
Key facts
- Amazon will officially close AWS Mechanical Turk on September 30, 2026, after stopping new customer registrations in July 2026.[CNBC]
- Mechanical Turk was launched in 2005 to perform basic digital micro-tasks known as Human Intelligence Tasks, such as data labeling, audio transcription, and answering surveys.[CNBC]
- Amazon founder Jeff Bezos famously characterized the service as 'artificial artificial intelligence' because it used humans to complete tasks that computers could not yet execute.[CNBC]
- At its peak, the platform served over 500,000 workers, according to Amazon.[CNBC]
- A 2023 study by Swiss researchers indicated that up to 46% of Mechanical Turk workers utilized AI tools to complete their assigned tasks.[CNBC]
What remains uncertain
- It is unclear how many workers currently rely on Mechanical Turk as their primary income source as the platform prepares to close.[CNBC]