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Get ratedRoast Rating · Rated on public evidence · 25 September 2026
Shutting Mechanical Turk on 30 September 2026 after 21 years, as AI models and specialist data-labelling firms took the demand.
Roast Rating
4 of 5
Verdict
KILLHow the council got there
Amazon called it artificial artificial intelligence in 2005. It shuts on Tuesday, killed by the real thing.
The Wrecking Ball
finds the one fatal flaw
A marketplace for tasks computers cannot do dies the day computers can do them. That day came.
The Dreamer With A Calculator
finds the realistic upside
The prize was captured. Two decades of humans labelling data is part of why the models exist that made the humans redundant. A kill after 21 years of revenue is a business, not a failure.
The Toddler
strips the borrowed assumptions
But why now? Because the demand moved to Scale, Mercor and Prolific, which recruit workers for AI training instead of micro-tasks. But why is the internet mourning a platform famous for paying cents per task?
The Receipts
no opinions, only sourced facts
Launched 2005. Stopped taking new customers in July 2026. Announced on 25 Aug: closes 30 Sep 2026, 'following an internal assessment of its programs and services'. Jeff Bezos coined the phrase artificial artificial intelligence for it.
The Wallet
the buyer, deciding whether to pay
I stopped buying tasks the month a model could label faster and cheaper. So did everyone. Amazon read the invoices.
Kill, and it is the right call. The market issued the verdict. Amazon just signed it.
Twenty-one years of paying customers, then a measured decline, then the decision. This is what a Kill with 4 flames looks like: tested to the end, then ended.
Not needed. Two decades of invoices were the test.
| Mode | Rated on public evidence |
|---|---|
| Model | Claude Fable 5.1 (all six voices) |
| Voices | 5 of 5 debating voices reached the Final Word's verdict |
| Evidence strength | High. Amazon's own announcement and the July customer freeze are on the record. |
| Rated | 25 September 2026, under the Roast Rating Standard v1.0 |
| Expires | 25 September 2027 |
| Status | Current |
This rating grades how well the decision was tested, not whether it will succeed. It is not investment, legal or financial advice. It rates only the evidence that was public on the date shown. Read the standard.
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