Amazon · Companies and people · Society
Amazon stopped taking new Mechanical Turk customers, closing an era in data labeling
This story was updated after publication (Oct. 9, 2026). Details
For years the platform was the standard tool for labeling AI training data. The decision is a concrete sign of that work shifting from human crowds to automated systems. New sign-ups stopped on July 30, and in late August Amazon announced the platform would shut down entirely on September 30, 2026.
Sources
- The Register, “Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to stop accepting new customers – and not even AI can save it”, (theregister.com)
- TechCrunch, “Amazon will stop accepting new customers for Mechanical Turk”, (techcrunch.com)
- CNBC, “Amazon service Bezos once called ‘artificial artificial intelligence’ is shutting down”, (cnbc.com)
- Amazon Mechanical Turk, closure notice and FAQ page (mturk.com)
Corrections and updates
- The version first posted on Instagram said existing customers could keep using the platform. Before publication, in late August, Amazon had already announced it would shut the platform down entirely on September 30, 2026; the text has been corrected.
- After this story was published, Mechanical Turk closed permanently on September 30, 2026, including the MTurk workforce in SageMaker Ground Truth and Amazon Augmented AI.
About this story
This story was posted on Instagram by @jarrus.tech on Sept. 16, 2026.
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This story in Turkish: Amazon, Mechanical Turk’e yeni müşteri almayı durdurdu, veri etiketlemede bir dönem kapanıyor
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