Amazon Sues Perplexity Over AI Agentic Comet Shopping Tool

Comet illustration of Perplexity AI (photo; x @AtomSilverman)

JAKARTA - Amazon sued artificial intelligence (AI) Perplexity AI startup on Tuesday 4 November for its automated shopping feature called agentic shopping tool'. In a lawsuit filed with the US District Court for the northern region of California, Amazon accused Perplexity of secretly accessing Amazon's customer accounts and disguising automatic activity as human tracing through Comet browsers and related AI agents.

This case highlights a new debate surrounding regulations on the use of AI agents that are increasingly autonomous in interacting with websites, including carrying out online tasks such as shopping, comparing products, or making automatic transactions.

In its lawsuit, Amazon stated that Perplexity's system poses a security risk to customer data and remains operational despite repeated warnings.

Instead of being transparent, Perplexity deliberately configures CometaI software so that its agent's activities are not identified in Amazon stores, Amazon wrote in its complaint. Perplexity violation must be stopped. That the violation is done via code, not a pass key, does not make it legal.

Amazon considers that Perplexity's actions have undermined the user's shopping experience and disrupted the company's efforts to maintain a decades-old shopping experience.

Perplexity Tuding Amazon Press Innovation

Responding to the allegations, Perplexity previously called Amazon's move a form of abuse of market power to silence competitors.

"This is a form of intimidation when big corporations use legal threats to block innovation and worsen user life," Perplexity wrote in a blog post.

The startup confirms that users' credentials are stored locally on their respective devices, not on the company's servers, so they are safe and remain owned by users.

Easier spending means more transactions and more satisfied customers, said Perplexity. But Amazon doesn't care about that they're more interested in showing you ads.

Perplexity also mentions that users have the right to choose the AI assistant they want, accusing Amazon of stepping up to protect its ad-based business model.

Perplexity is among a number of AI startups seeking to redefine the concept of a web browser by integrating artificial intelligence in depth, making it capable of daily tasks such as writing emails to completing purchase transactions.

Amazon itself is developing similar features, such as Buy For Me which allows users to shop across brands directly from the app, as well as Rufus, an AI assistant who provides product recommendations and helps manage shopping carts.

This dispute shows the increasing tension between technology giants and AI startups regarding the control of the digital shopping ecosystem, which is increasingly driven by automation and artificial intelligence.