TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
This math isn't math-ing.
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Turns out relying on AI-assisted vibe coding or similarly generative tools for major tech infrastructure has some drawbacks—who could've foreseen this? Apparently, Amazon may have some regrets.
Earlier this week, the e-commerce team at Amazon arranged a "deep dive" meeting with a number of engineers to investigate what led to a series of outages. A briefing note for the meeting on Tuesday was seen by The Financial Times, and it describes a "trend of incidents" with a “high blast radius." Some but not all of the discussed incidents were tied to the use of AI coding tools; "Novel GenAI usage for which best practices and safeguards are not yet fully established," was listed as one contributing factor.
Though we don't know which incidents the group specifically discussed, internal communication suggests a broad scope. Dave Treadwell, the senior vice-president of Amazon's eCommerce Services team, is reported to have said to employees over email: "Folks, as you likely know, the availability of the site and related infrastructure has not been good recently."
The meeting follows last week's six-hour Amazon outage that was due to "a software code deployment" (via CNBC). Relatedly, multiple reports have placed the blame for two Amazon Web Services outages last year at the feet of an AI coding tool allowed to 'delete and recreate the environment' from scratch.
It's worth clarifying that AI coding tools aren't what caused the October 2025 outage that affected Fortnite, Roblox, Reddit, and many others—that was a Domain Name System (DNS) error. Amazon claims the two December 2025 outages were "extremely limited," with one affecting just a single service in parts of mainland China, and the other apparently not affecting anything AWS customers would see.
At any rate, Amazon isn't ditching AI coding tools; when these tools have been implicated in outages before, Amazon has been keen to frame it as an access issue rather than anything else. As such, the briefing note from this week's meeting reveals that junior and mid-level engineers at Amazon will now require a senior engineer to sign off on any AI-assisted changes.
While guardrails and human oversight make sense for any AI use, in this instance, it arguably just adds to the workload of a greatly reduced team; according to The Financial Times, Amazon has laid off more than 30,000 ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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GamesRadar+
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Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Turns out relying on AI-assisted vibe coding or similarly generative tools for major tech infrastructure has some drawbacks—who could've foreseen this? Apparently, Amazon may have some regrets.
Earlier this week, the e-commerce team at Amazon arranged a "deep dive" meeting with a number of engineers to investigate what led to a series of outages. A briefing note for the meeting on Tuesday was seen by The Financial Times, and it describes a "trend of incidents" with a “high blast radius." Some but not all of the discussed incidents were tied to the use of AI coding tools; "Novel GenAI usage for which best practices and safeguards are not yet fully established," was listed as one contributing factor.
Though we don't know which incidents the group specifically discussed, internal communication suggests a broad scope. Dave Treadwell, the senior vice-president of Amazon's eCommerce Services team, is reported to have said to employees over email: "Folks, as you likely know, the availability of the site and related infrastructure has not been good recently."
The meeting follows last week's six-hour Amazon outage that was due to "a software code deployment" (via CNBC). Relatedly, multiple reports have placed the blame for two Amazon Web Services outages last year at the feet of an AI coding tool allowed to 'delete and recreate the environment' from scratch.
It's worth clarifying that AI coding tools aren't what caused the October 2025 outage that affected Fortnite, Roblox, Reddit, and many others—that was a Domain Name System (DNS) error. Amazon claims the two December 2025 outages were "extremely limited," with one affecting just a single service in parts of mainland China, and the other apparently not affecting anything AWS customers would see.
At any rate, Amazon isn't ditching AI coding tools; when these tools have been implicated in outages before, Amazon has been keen to frame it as an access issue rather than anything else. As such, the briefing note from this week's meeting reveals that junior and mid-level engineers at Amazon will now require a senior engineer to sign off on any AI-assisted changes.
While guardrails and human oversight make sense for any AI use, in this instance, it arguably just adds to the workload of a greatly reduced team; according to The Financial Times, Amazon has laid off more than 30,000 ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?