While all these concerns are valid and I share them too, we...

While all these concerns are valid and I share them too, we can't forget the positive side of things (and more likely scenario). There is a chance that because Appen specializes in this more than Amazon, that Amazon can't match the quality/productivity of the data annotation that Appen provides. I googled amazon data label partner and the first link that came up was an article by FigureEight written on the AWS website. Clearly, Amazon uses their services and if they have been using the services so far, it wouldn't make sense to all of a sudden start doing it themselves. There must be initial investment in people and software that Amazon would have to make to start doing the data annotation themselves. They would have to buy said software/pay to hire talented staff, so if anything I would think if they want to do this kind of stuff themselves, they would do a takeover bid on Appen and other similar companies.