A battle is brewing between two tech giants, Amazon and Perplexity, over the use of AI shopping bots. Amazon has taken a strong stance, sending a cease and desist letter to Perplexity, demanding they stop their Comet browser from making automated purchases. But here's where it gets controversial...
Comet, along with other browsers like OpenAI's Atlas, utilizes large language models to automate web browsing and make online purchases. Amazon argues that third-party apps should seek permission before enabling such capabilities, ensuring a positive customer experience.
"Agentic third-party applications, like Perplexity's Comet, have obligations. We've repeatedly asked Perplexity to remove Amazon from Comet, especially considering the poor shopping and customer service experience it provides," Amazon stated.
Perplexity's software, it seems, tries to evade detection when interacting with Amazon's web store. This stealthy approach is similar to what Reddit alleged in their lawsuit against Perplexity.
Amazon is also concerned that Comet's AI might buy products not recommended by their personalized suggestions. However, cooperation between the companies could lead to Amazon sharing its personalization data with Perplexity, but this would likely require financial compensation. Alternatively, Amazon might prefer to focus on its own AI agent, Rufus.
Interestingly, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos invested in Perplexity last year. Despite this, Perplexity objects to Amazon's demands, calling it "a threat to all internet users."
According to a survey, 66% of consumers refuse AI-made purchases, but interest in automated shopping may be growing. Perplexity considers Amazon's demands as bullying, and their legal analysis, written in an AI-like tone, argues for the right to hire labor and have assistants.
"Software is becoming labor, an assistant, an employee, an agent," Perplexity states. "Large corporations have no right to stop you from owning tools. Amazon's position is a bully tactic to scare off disruptive companies like Perplexity."
The legal complexities are intriguing. While software and tools are different, Perplexity's claims about AI agents being distinct from crawlers and bots are not clear, even to legal experts.
Perplexity further argues that publishers and corporations cannot discriminate against users based on their chosen AI representatives. Users must have the right to choose their technology.
Professor Eric Goldman from Santa Clara University explains that Comet leverages Amazon customer credentials to make purchases. He suggests that services could restrict the disclosure of credentials in their terms of service. However, this could cut off users who find such proxy services useful.
Goldman adds that Amazon could block Comet specifically if they can reliably identify the browser, a challenge that has plagued companies trying to block AI crawlers.
The legal landscape is unclear, especially after the Van Buren v. United States case. Distinguishing between web browsing, scraping, and agentic AI access is a complex task for the law.
Goldman compares this dispute to carriage contract battles between cable TV companies and broadcasters, where both sides must suffer before realizing the benefits of cooperation.
So, who will prevail in this AI shopping bot battle? Will Amazon and Perplexity find a way to work together, or will this dispute escalate further? What are your thoughts on the matter? We'd love to hear your opinions in the comments!
