Amazon is in talks with Simon Property Group, the biggest mall owner in the U.S., about converting some of its mall spaces into fulfillment centers. Under the deal, the entities would convert closed Sears and J.C. Penney locations near residential areas to speed up Amazon's last mile of delivery, the WSJ reports.

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• It's unclear which locations inside Simon malls Amazon is considering or how many.
• Both Sears and J.C. Penney have filed for bankruptcy and shuttered dozens of stores this year. Simon and mall giant Brookfield Property Partners are pursuing an acquisition of J.C. Penney, which declared bankruptcy in May and plans to close a total of 154 stores this summer.
• As of May, J.C. Penney and Sears take up 6% and 1.7% of mall space, respectively, in the U.S . The retailers have a combined 74 stores – 63 J.C. Penney and 11 Sears – in Simon malls.
• Some U.S. malls already rent out parking spaces to Amazon's delivery vans.
• The WSJ's take: For Simon, turning over the space shows it's "willing to relinquish an essential way to bring in more mall traffic." It could upset other retailers in the malls that seek extra foot traffic.
• From Twitter: @Jhelmuth tweeted: "A way to resurrect abandoned malls across the country? Sounds good to me." Others were less positive. "That's ironic since Amazon has made malls obsolete," wrote @Man20Cmon.

Jeff Bezos sold 1 million shares of Amazon stock worth $3.1b last week. The sale brings the Amazon CEO's total stock sales this year to ~$7.2b. Last year, he sold $2.8b worth of shares.

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• At the time of sale, the shares were priced between $3,102.85 and $3,183.26 each. The sell-off was part of a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan, according to filings.
• Bezos still owns ~54 million shares of Amazon, more than 10% of all shares, with a value of more than $170b. He is currently worth $189b.
• In 2017, he announced that he would sell $1b or more worth of stock each year to fund his aerospace/spaceflight company Bue Origin. "The price of admission to space is very high," Bezos said in 2018.
• Blue Origin, a partner of Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite internet project, has landed "significant industry partnerships" and could start launching Amazon satellites soon.
• Amazon stock is up nearly 70% from the beginning of 2020. The company posted $88.9b in Q2 revenue, up 40% YoY.

A protest group led by a former Amazon worker demonstrated outside Jeff Bezos' NYC residence yesterday, demanding union rights, better pay and healthcare, and more transparency about coronavirus cases at warehouses. The protest, which drew several dozen people, was organized by Christian Smalls, who was fired earlier this year from Amazon's Staten Island warehouse after he led a group of colleagues to protest the company’s response to the pandemic.

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• Smalls' group, the Congress of Essential Workers, issued a list of 15 demands. They include paid leave for workers who test positive for coronavirus, a minimum starting wage of $30 per hour for hourly associates, and an hour-long lunch for full-time workers.
• They also demanded a neutral stance on unions and a wealth tax on the richest 3% of Americans. 
• They protested on the sidewalk outside Bezos's residence. He purchased the $16m New York City condo in April and also owns an adjoining two-floor penthouse and nearby apartments in the building.
• As of mid-May, there were confirmed cases of the virus at more than 100 warehouses. At least eight workers have died.
• At the start of the pandemic, Amazon initially offered unlimited unpaid time off and a $2 hourly raise for employees. Those policies are no longer in effect.

U.S. law enforcement agencies made more requests for Amazon data in the first half of this year than the same period in 2019. Amazon received 23% more subpoenas and search warrants and 29% more court orders during the first six months of 2020, according to the company’s latest transparency report.

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• The report, published late last week, shows that Amazon received 2,416 subpoenas and provided all or partial user data in 70% of cases.
• It provided all or partial data to 79% of 543 search warrant cases and 74% of 146 court orders.
• 92% of the company's 177 foreign requests were rejected. The number of overseas data requests fell by a third compared to the same period in 2019.
• Amazon provides select data from Amazon.com, AWS, Kindle and Fire devices, and Amazon Echo. Its Ring smart camera division does not release user data to police.
• The company hasn't commented on why agencies are requesting more user data.

Amazon awarded its $500k Alexa Prize to Emory University students who developed the Emora chatbot. The self-evolving chatbot is a "social companion" that can discuss everyday topics through Alexa-enabled devices.

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• Amazon gives out the prize every year to teams that design social bots for Alexa. Judges assign scores out of 5 points based on how coherent and engaging the bots are. Ten university teams competed in this year's challenge.
• Emory’s team was led by Ph.D. student Sarah Fillwock and faculty adviser Jinho D. Choi, with eleven grad students and three undergrads participating overall.
• In second place was Stanford University’s Chirpy Cardinal team, which won the $100k prize.
• Emora had a 3.81 average rating; Stanford’s Chirpy got a 3.17, and Czech socialbot Alquist came in third with 3.14.
• Prem Natarajan, Amazon VP of Alexa AI's Natural Understanding group, recently spoke about the challenge on the Eye on AI podcast.

A version of this story first appeared in Inside AI.

QUICK HITS

• Amazon launched The Face Mask Store with filters to navigate through the thousands of masks sold by third parties.
• Jeff Bezos formed a new limited liability company, Fellowship Ventures LLC, that could run the company's $10b pledge program to fight climate change.
• Amazon Studios has ordered a TV series based on 1992's "A League of Their Own" that's co-created by Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson, who also stars.
• Musical artist Lizzo signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios to develop TV projects.
• Amazon could rebrand Twitch Prime to Prime Gaming, similar to Prime Video and Prime Music. Twitter user @dellcam said it's like "Amazon buying Honda and renaming it 'Prime Car.'"
• The fittest athletes in the world swear by CBD. See what they're using here.*

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