Two U.S. Senators Ask FTC to Investigate Amazon and Walmart Over Shopping-Assistant AI

RegulationProduct / Tech
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Summary · why it matters

Two U.S. senators have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate shopping-assistant AI from Amazon.com and Walmart. In a letter to the FTC, Senators Tammy Baldwin and Rick Scott said Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky may exclude American-made products from what they display or fail to detect false labeling, undermining U.S. manufacturing and misleading consumers. The senators cited research from a think tank led by former FTC Chair Lina Khan, which found that these AIs provide information about products made in China and other countries while suppressing information about American-made goods. The letter cites that research and notes that when Alexa was asked why there was no made-in-USA filter, it replied that doing so would "take away considerable sales from our largest seller base" and referred to overseas manufacturers. An Amazon spokesperson said the claim that the company deliberately withholds country-of-origin information is fundamentally wrong, and explained that Alexa for Shopping is a service that is continuously improving and that, to prioritize accuracy, it currently directs customers who ask about country of origin to the product detail page. The FTC declined to comment, and Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Impact on stocks 2

Artificial Intelligence · 1 stocks
Amazon.com Inc
AMZN
▼ NegativeRegulationrelevance

Two senators asked the FTC to investigate Amazon's Alexa for Shopping over allegedly suppressing made-in-USA product information.

Consumer Staples · 1 stocks
Walmart Inc.
WMT
▼ NegativeRegulationrelevance

Two senators asked the FTC to investigate Walmart's Sparky AI over allegedly excluding American-made products and failing to detect false labeling.

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