We put Amazon’s new grocery strategy to the test | Adoption startup PairTree raises more cash

Testing Amazon Dash Cart vs. ‘Just Walk Out’: A week after Amazon signaled a major shift in its grocery store checkout technology, we put the two main approaches to the test. The winner of our experiment: the technology that Amazon is moving away from in these stores. Our least-favorite option: the approach that Amazon is betting on. Read more. 

Amazon’s total employment in Washington state experienced its first year-over-year decline since the company was founded nearly 30 years ago in Jeff Bezos’ Bellevue garage, according to GeekWire’s analysis of Amazon’s jobs numbers. Once the company’s largest state for employment, Washington is now third behind California and Texas. Read more. 

PairTree, a Seattle startup that matches expectant moms with families who are eager to adopt, just raised more cash to help expand into a full-service platform that supports multiple aspects of the adoption process. Read more.

Seattle-area game studio ProbablyMonsters announced a new internal development team led by former developers at Bungie. Read more.

There’s nothing like a total solar eclipse to remind you of the unstoppability of nature — and the tenuousness of technology. The three musketeers of GeekWire's solar eclipse team recount their hunt for totality in Indiana and Arkansas, and above New York. (Above: Photographer Kevin Lisota captured the diamond-ring effect just moments before the beginning of the eclipse, as seen from Cossatot River State Park in Arkansas.)

Hot Links:

• U.S. lawmakers from Washington proposed a landmark privacy legislation limiting the data that tech companies collect on their users. (Spokesman Review)

• Microsoft said it will invest $2.9 billion over two years to boost AI and cloud infrastructure in Japan. (Microsoft)

• AI and job replacement: An analysis of recent startup pitches reveals what types of roles could be disrupted by AI — from the perspective of founders looking for investment. (Kieran Snyder) 

• Google Cloud unveiled new custom ARM-based server processors at its Cloud Next conference, following the lead of rivals Amazon and Microsoft in the chip race. (CNBC)

Thanks for subscribing to the GeekWire newsletter, and have a great day. — GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com, and GeekWire editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com.