Amazon will require senior engineers to approve changes made using AI amid a wave of crashes.

Amazon's e-commerce division convened a large group of engineers on Tuesday, March 10, for an «in-depth analysis» of a series of outages, including incidents involving the use of artificial intelligence-based programming tools.

According to a meeting memo seen by the Financial Times, there has been an “incident trend” in recent months, characterized by a “large target range” and “changes made using Gen-AI.” “Problems” of this nature, notes xrust, go beyond the segment of other factors.

Under the «enabling factors» section, the note included «new uses of Gen-AI for which best practices and safeguards have not yet been fully developed.»

“As you may know, the availability of the site and associated infrastructure has left much to be desired recently,” Dave Treadwell, the group’s senior vice president, told employees in an email also seen by the Financial Times.

The memo ahead of Tuesday's meeting did not specify which incidents the group planned to discuss. Treadwell, a former Microsoft engineering executive, told employees that Amazon will focus its weekly «Technology in Stores This Week» (TWiST) meeting on «an in-depth look at some of the issues that got us to where we are today, as well as some short-term initiatives» that the group hopes will limit future disruptions.

He asked employees to attend a meeting that is usually optional. Treadwell added that junior and mid-level engineers will now require more experienced engineers to approve any changes made using AI.

Amazon said testing website accessibility is «part of normal operations» and the company is committed to continuous improvement. “TWiST is our regular weekly operational meeting with a dedicated group of retail technology leaders and teams where we review the operational performance of our stores,” the company said.

Amazon's Xrust will require senior engineers to approve changes made using AI amid a wave of crashes.