Around 2500 people are working ahead of the festive period to help deliver gifts alongside an army of robots.
Oliver Leader de Saxe reports.
Oliver Leader de Saxe reports.
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00:00it's not quite Santa's workshop. But in the shadow of the Dartford Crossing,
00:05the busiest Amazon warehouse in Europe is gearing up to make the Christmas magic happen.
00:11Two and a half thousand workers, some hired just for the festive season,
00:16are working day and night to distribute deliveries across the South East.
00:22But with countless items being stocked, stacked and sent off,
00:28the global delivery giant has swapped the elves for something a little more futuristic.
00:34AI is in everything we do. Everywhere you look, AI is involved in our process.
00:40Amazon's been working with machine learning for over 25 years now,
00:44whether it's the optimization of a parcel coming in or on the road.
00:48And that journey starts months before a package will be even delivered to the door.
00:53And we're investing heavily in gendered AI as we believe it's going to be
00:56something that's going to transform every application of our personal, professional lives.
01:01Amazon couldn't do what they do without one of these, the Hercules Drive robot.
01:06There's thousands of these giant Roomba-style machines scuttling around the warehouse.
01:12And they can carry around 800 kilograms, the weight of a grand piano.
01:17And they make sure the goods that you need get to your doorstep
01:20by delivering them to the right place in storage.
01:23So basically, our robots move the shelves with the products to our stores and pickers.
01:29So stores and pickers, they can put or remove the items.
01:33Every day, we make sure everything is running smoothly, if motor is working,
01:37if they are clean and the wheels are working properly.
01:42But artificial intelligence is energy intensive.
01:46One UN report suggests that the number of data centers required for machine learning worldwide
01:54has surged to over 8 million, with energy consumption doubling every four years,
02:01in no small part due to our reliance on AI.
02:05And while Amazon's overall emissions fell by 3% last year,
02:11emissions as a result of direct operations, like delivering packages and data services,
02:19rose to more than 14 million tons, according to Amazon's own sustainability report.
02:28So with 30,000 robots and miles of conveyor belts in just this warehouse alone,
02:34is Amazon boxing us into a high emission future?
02:38Amazon signed the climate pledge in 2019.
02:41And with that, made two commitments.
02:43Number one, by the year 2030, all of our data centers, warehouses, grocery stores
02:47would be using 100% renewable energy, which I'm happy to say by last year alone,
02:52we were able to reach that.
02:53So seven years ahead of plan.
02:54By the year 2040, to be carbon net neutral, which involves tons of things.
02:59As you see, like with our packaging, we're reducing our packaging every day.
03:03But with Amazon promising to invest even more into their robots in the coming years,
03:08some here in Kent may be left wondering what's next for the people behind the presents.
03:16Oliver Leader, The Saks for KNTV in Dartford.