On Tuesday, Perplexity AI accused Amazon of "bullying" its users. Previously, the e-commerce giant sent a letter to Perplexity AI asking it to prevent users from using its artificial intelligence browser Comet to shop on behalf of others. Perplexity said in a blog post that users can ask its Comet assistant to find items on Amazon and complete purchases, and that users "love the experience." But Perplexity said it received "aggressive legal threats" from Amazon, which asked it to stop the practice.
Perplexity AI accuses Amazon of bullying over legal threats over Comet browser
In recent months, Amazon has taken steps to prevent outside artificial intelligence agents from crawling its website, including those developed by OpenAI, Google and Meta.
"Amazon should be happy to see this happen. Easier shopping means more transactions and happier customers. But Amazon doesn't care," Perplexity writes. "They are more interested in serving you ads, sponsoring results, and influencing your purchasing decisions with upsells and confusing offers."
While Amazon is trying to prevent artificial intelligence tools from appearing on its site, it is launching its own artificial intelligence products.
Last February, Amazon launched a shopping chatbot called Rufus that can answer questions and recommend products. In April, Amazon also began testing a smart assistant called "Buy For Me" that lets users purchase certain items from other websites without leaving the Amazon app.
Perplexity is best known for its artificial intelligence search engine that provides users with concise answers to their questions and links to original material on the web. The company originally launched Comet in July and made it freely available globally in October.
Perplexity says Comet is designed to be a personal assistant that can search the web, organize tabs, shop, compose emails and more.