Report from MediaPost
In Brief – Amazon is restricting its customers from using Meta’s Muse AI agent after Meta declined Amazon’s request to remove the site from Muse’s operations. Amazon shoppers attempting to use Muse now receive an automated message saying that continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon’s Conditions of Use. The ecommerce giant, which has its own AI agents, does not permit outside AI shopping agents to navigate its retail platform or make purchases. While the restriction is unlikely to significantly affect Amazon sales, it highlights growing competition among AI developers for access to major online consumer platforms and the potential future of AI shopping.
Context – Amazon is leading the legal and technical campaign to block third-party shopping agents. It sued AI developer Perplexity last year alleging that its Comet shopping agent violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a federal anti-hacking law, and initially won an injunction against Perplexity, but that ruling was overturned by a Ninth Circuit appeals panel that argued the shopper, not Perplexity, accessed Amazon. Along with attempting to impose technical and terms of use blocks against Comet, like they are applying to Muse, Amazon has filed an amended complaint against the AI company. On the technical front, Amazon has expanded its use of robot.txt files to block 47 different bots and recently began stripping item names from its order-related customer emails to deprive AI agents of information. The largest “traditional” retailers, who operate stores, websites, and usually an online marketplace as well, have mostly chosen to pursue integration with AI shopping platforms, at least for now. However, we think Amazon v Muse is best understood in the context of Shopify’s continued challenge to Amazon. Amazon dominates ecommerce, but Shopify’s small-retailer based GMV is the second largest share and is growing faster. Meta’s very successful ad platforms are filled with small retailers who often use Shopify services and Shopify’s payment system is central to the Muse architecture.