MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ala. (WSFA) – Erin Cox runs a business out of her home near Montgomery that produces curriculum for parents that choose to homeschool their children.
“Over 80,000 families use our material, and so this is the sole income for our family,” Cox explained.
The company, The Gentle and Classical Press, has its own website, but she wanted to list a picture book on Amazon as well.
Shortly after registering her brand on the website, Cox says she began to notice listings of her other products without her permission.
At first, Cox says she noticed listings to purchase directly from her website via Amazon facilitated by a new AI driven feature called “Buy for Me.”
She was able to opt out of those listings but showed WSFA out of stock listings with AI generated descriptions that remain on the website.
Even though they’re unavailable for purchase, Cox says it creates data collection problems.
“For us to know whether our ads are working, any of those types of things, it’s very important so we know how to spend our very small advertising budget,” Cox explained. “The second thing is we want to make sure that no one has data about our product popularity other than us, and so this gives Amazon all of this data about which of our products are doing well and which they might want to have a competing offer for,”
Cox added that it also gives their customers the perception that they can simply go to Amazon for anything and that there is “no internet outside Amazon.”
Cox says she’s contacted the company multiple times trying to get those listings removed to no avail.
An Amazon spokesperson says they’ve flagged Cox’s problems internally and will handle it promptly as soon as they receive the request through the proper channel.
That spokesperson also provided the following statement:
Amazon’s Buy for Me feature can authorize Amazon’s AI to complete a purchase on the brand’s website on their behalf.
Shop Direct allows products to appear in Amazon search results without being listed on Amazon’s store with a link to take customers directly to a seller’s website.
Concerns over Amazon’s AI implementation are not limited to Cox. They have been reported on nationwide by outlets like CNBC and Bloomberg.
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