Amazon, Perplexity, And The Future Of Ai Shopping Assistants

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Amazon has threatened ineligible action against AI startup Perplexity.
• Perplexity called nan move "a threat to each net users." 
• The conflict could effect nan early of AI-powered shopping.

The conflict complete nan early of AI-powered shopping has begun.

Amazon sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter connected Friday, demanding that nan AI start-up instantly artifact its agentic Comet browser from making purchases connected behalf of users successful nan Amazon Store. 

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Addressed to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, nan missive claims nan institution has ignored aggregate warnings astir its Comet browser violating Amazon's conditions of usage by not identifying itself arsenic an AI agent, and that nan company's "ongoing forbidden intrusion into nan Amazon Store has already caused sizeable harm, including disrupting Amazon's customer relationships and forcing Amazon to give important resources to track, investigate, and reside Perplexity's misconduct."

The missive added that if Perplexity did not work together pinch its position by Monday astatine 5 p.m., Amazon would prosecute ineligible action against nan company.

Perplexity fired backmost nan pursuing time successful a blog post titled "Bullying is not innovation." The institution painted itself arsenic Silicon Valley's young David taking connected an tremendous tech Goliath successful Amazon, which had mislaid show of its founding startup ethic and, by seeking to forcibly artifact Perplexity's AI shopping assistant, was brazenly prioritizing advertisement gross and different nefarious forms of personification exploitation complete what it had primitively been built to provide: a frictionless online shopping experience.

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"This is Amazon's first ineligible salvo against an AI company, and it is simply a threat to each net users," Perplexity wrote.

The aged defender meets nan new 

Perplexity is besides framing its ineligible conflict pinch Amazon arsenic a title betwixt nan aged defender of AI-powered shopping and an emerging paradigm wherever agents enactment arsenic extensions of quality users, shopping connected their behalf and thereby liberating them from nan time-consuming activity of shopping for nan champion deals, comparing merchandise offerings, and nan like.

"For decades, instrumentality learning and algorithms person been weapons successful nan hands of ample corporations, deployed to service ads and manipulate what you see, experience, and purchase," Perplexity wrote. "The transformative committedness of LLMs is that they put powerfulness backmost successful nan hands of people. Agentic AI marks a meaningful shift: users tin yet regain power of their online experiences." 

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In different words: Sit backmost and relax, Amazon shoppers -- Comet tin zip done nan online shopping process without getting bogged down by spammy ads and predatory offers. 

Amazon sees things differently, of course, arguing successful its missive that nan usage of Comet "degrades nan Amazon shopping experience" by bypassing important and acquainted points of engagement. 

"When Comet AI shops and makes purchases from nan Amazon Store, Comet AI whitethorn not prime nan champion price, transportation method, aliases recommendations, and Amazon customers whitethorn not person captious merchandise information," Amazon's ineligible counsel wrote successful its letter. "For example, Comet AI does not connection Amazon customers nan action of adding products to existing deliveries, which tin consequence successful improved transportation times and little shipment volumes."

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The missive besides claims that utilizing Comet besides endangers Amazon personification privateness (which Perplexity denied successful its retort).

Whose AI adjunct wins? 

Amazon has a delicate statement to toed here. AI boomerism has go an ideological sticking constituent passim Silicon Valley -- 1 of nan awesome taboos of modern tech (at slightest if you're trying to pull investor dollars) is appearing to beryllium an AI Luddite. 

Amazon, therefore, made it a constituent to explain successful its missive that while it was firmly opposed to Perplexity's usage of Comet to shop connected behalf of quality users, it was steadfastly committed to nan zeitgeist's broader clasp of AI.

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"As a wide matter, Amazon shares nan industry's excitement astir AI innovations and sees important imaginable for agentic AI to amended customer experiences successful a scope of areas," nan company's ineligible counsel wrote. "But to successfully present for customers, AI agents that connection to make purchases connected behalf of customers must run transparently erstwhile taking actions purportedly connected a customer's behalf."

Therein lies Amazon's halfway motivation: it's presently pushing its ain AI shopping assistant, Rufus, which it launched backmost successful July. As Perplexity pointed retired successful its blog, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told investors successful an net telephone past week that nan institution "[expects] complete clip to partner pinch third-party agents." The accusation is that AI shopping assistants erode nan optimal personification shopping acquisition -- unless they're built by Amazon itself. 

It's not nan only e-commerce tract actively trying to capitalize connected agent-powered shopping experiences. In nan company's ain net telephone earlier this week, Shopify -- which builds online shopping experiences for businesses -- reported that purchases done its level and rooted successful AI-powered hunt had increased elevenfold since January. 

AI and nan early of quality agency

The unfolding conflict betwixt Amazon and Perplexity offers an early glimpse of what could go a agelong and prolonged conflict passim nan e-commerce world arsenic it witnesses nan emergence of agentic shopping assistants.

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In 1 corner, Perplexity and akin AI-native startups will reason that they're empowering users done automation, while saluting immoderate vague founding ethos of nan net arsenic a instrumentality for democratizing entree to everything, including that woody connected nan vacuum cleaner you've been eyeing connected Amazon. Bigger, much established tech companies for illustration Amazon, connected nan different hand, are apt to reason that nan ad-based exemplary connected which nan net has been built complete nan past 20+ years, while admittedly imperfect, is surely amended than an all-out free-for-all wherever armies of anonymous agents undercut nan choices of individual users.

That, ultimately, is what it boils down to: quality agency. Will it beryllium expanded aliases eroded by AI? Only clip -- and astir apt much than a fewer agelong and prolonged ineligible battles -- will tell.