Amazon tries to block Comet users from shopping with AI

Gloves are coming off in the AI arms race. This week, Amazon reportedly issued legal threats to Perplexity for allowing its AI assistant to shop on Amazon, even though that means more product sales for Amazon. Strange move, unless product sales aren't the priority anymore..? In unrelated news, Amazon has invested ~$8B in Anthropic over the past few years.

Gloves are coming off in the AI arms race. This week, Amazon reportedly issued legal threats to Perplexity for allowing its AI assistant to shop on Amazon, even though that means more product sales for Amazon. Strange move, unless product sales aren't the priority anymore..? In unrelated news, Amazon has invested ~$8B in Anthropic over the past few years.

Amazon just told an AI startup to stop letting users shop with AI assistants. Here's what happened: Perplexity created an AI assistant that can shop Amazon for you. You ask for something, it finds it, buys it. Done. No scrolling through ads or sponsored products. Amazon sent them a legal threat this week. Stop it immediately. Their reason? They say it creates a poor shopping experience and bypasses their system. Perplexity's take? Amazon just wants to keep showing you ads. This matters because it's not really about shopping. It's about control. The big question: Should you be allowed to use YOUR AI assistant on ANY website you want? Or can companies block them? Think about it - you wouldn't let a store tell you that you can't bring your friend to help you shop. So why should they block your AI assistant? But Amazon has a point too. It's their store. They built it. Maybe they should decide who gets in. This fight is just beginning. And the outcome will determine whether AI works for us, or for big tech companies. We're watching the future being decided right now. Not in boardrooms or congress, but in legal battles between tech companies. What side are you on? Your right to use AI anywhere? Or a company's right to control their platform? The answer will shape how we all use the internet tomorrow. #AI #Amazon #innovation #futureoftech #ecommerce #userights #tech #digitaltransformation

Fascinating case. It echoes examples like Phia in fashion, or VPN-based price arbitrage. The challenge is clear: distributors will see their margins shrink dramatically if they don't look up.

“Bullying is not innovation.” Perplexity just received a legal threat from Amazon - demanding that we block Comet users from using their AI assistants on Amazon. This isn’t about legality; it’s about control. For decades, software has been a tool. With agentic AI, it’s becoming labour - your assistant, your representative, your right. No corporation should decide which AI you can use to act on your behalf. This fight isn’t just Perplexity vs. Amazon. It’s users vs. corporate intimidation. It’s about who truly owns your digital choices - you or the platform. https://lnkd.in/d7mcfX6A

Amazon's latest move: Threatening Perplexity AI with lawsuits to block Comet users from AI-powered shopping on their site. Perplexity fires back: "Bullying isn't innovation, we won't be intimidated." Is Big Tech scared of smart shoppers? The AI agent war is ON. What do you think - should e-commerce giants control how you shop with AI?

🔴 Perplexity issues a response regarding Amazon's intention to prevent Comet users from shopping through AI assistants, asserting their determination not to be intimidated.

Today’s been interesting in the AI world. Amazon just told Perplexity to remove them from the new Comet AI agent — saying it creates a “degraded experience” when agents make purchases on behalf of users. Perplexity fired back calling it “bullying” and a move to block innovation. On the surface, it’s a product spat. Underneath, it’s the first real skirmish in what’s coming next: The Agent War. The fight over who controls your digital assistant — the user or the platform. Amazon’s not wrong to worry about experience, security, and brand control. But let’s be honest: this is really about who gets to own the customer interface when AI agents start acting for people instead of through platforms. I don’t think this ends with Amazon and Perplexity. This will define how every company interacts with AI-driven customers. Who we build for — the user or the ecosystem — is about to get a lot more complicated. Curious how others see this — do you lean toward protecting the platform or empowering the user? Amazon’s statement: https://lnkd.in/e4wkQ6dn Perplexity’s response: https://lnkd.in/eNNcuvqu

Agentic Commerce War - Car with bumpy roads  There's a lawsuit that should make every engineer building AI applications pause and think carefully about the world they're creating. Amazon is suing Perplexity AI, and while the legal complaint talks about "covert access" and "computer fraud," what's really happening is far more interesting: we're watching the first shots fired in a war over who gets to control the future of commerce. "AI revolution" in shopping is probably going to make markets less competitive, not more.

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