Amazon employees are mocking the company's AI tools, referring to their output as 'slop' and joking about the company's failed attempts to motivate employees to use AI effectively. This internal criticism stands in stark contrast to the company's public claims about the potential benefits of AI. The memes, shared on a company Slack channel called #actual-aws-memes, range from critical of AI to more lighthearted, with employees expressing a spectrum of opinions. The discussion is particularly focused on Amazon's Kiro coding tool, which employees have been encouraged to use, and the company's recent shutdown of an internal leaderboard that tracked AI usage. The leaderboard was shut down due to cheating and wasteful, expensive AI use, which employees found ironic given the incentives to drive up usage. The memes also reference other Amazon AI products like Ask Rufus, Amazon Q, and Amazon Nova, questioning the concept of 'value' in AI. Amazon has responded by stating that the negative comments are from a few individuals and do not reflect the company's perspective or the majority of employees. However, the internal criticism highlights the challenges of aligning public and private perceptions of AI technology.
