Perplexity shopping bot not welcome at Amazon shop

Amazon is demanding that artificial intelligence startup Perplexity put a stop to its bot shopping for people at the e-commerce giant’s retail platform, the companies said on Tuesday.

Amazon sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter that sets the stage for a lawsuit if AI agent Comet continues to serve as a personal shopper for customers.

“We’ve repeatedly requested that Perplexity remove Amazon from the Comet experience,” an Amazon spokesperson said in response to an AFP inquiry.

“Particularly in light of the significantly degraded shopping and customer service experience it provides.”

Amazon also contends that Comet’s automated shopping is violating terms of service by not disclosing it is independently doing the shopping for users.

In a blog post, San Francisco-based Perplexity accused Amazon of using a “bully tactic” to scare “disruptive companies” from making shopping easier for people.

Like other generative AI tools, Comet has evolved beyond finding information or crafting text to independently performing computer tasks such as booking reservations or tending to online shopping.

Amazon says Perplexity has failed to take personalised recommendations into account and its AI agent is making mistakes regarding delivery times.

The retail colossus also argued that Perplexity uses tactics to gain “unauthorized access” for shopping at the platform, failing to operate “transparently.”

Amazon is testing its own AI agents capable of handling all stages of shopping for customers and uses data it collects to target products and ads.

Perplexity, valued recently at some $20 billion, is among tech firms developing AI agents that work in web browsers, tending to internet tasks for users.

Generative AI star OpenAI last month launched a ChatGPT Atlas web browser on Apple computers that is capable of shopping at some websites.

Similar AI agent shopping capabilities are expected to be added to Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers in coming months.