Amazon Court Loss Paves Way for Wider Use of AI Shopping Tools
Amazon's attempt to ban AI tools for shopping on its platform has been dealt a significant blow by a US court. On August 4, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision that temporarily prohibited Perplexity from using its AI agents to make purchases on Amazon.
The court found that Amazon was unlikely to prove its claims that Perplexity's AI agents violate the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This is the first federal appeals court ruling addressing whether AI agents acting on behalf of users can legally access online platforms.
Perplexity has stated that it will continue to defend users' rights to independently choose which artificial intelligence to use. The company's representative, Jesse Dwyer, said that Perplexity 'will continue to fight for internet users' right to choose any AI they want to use.'
Amazon filed a lawsuit against Perplexity in November, accusing the AI startup of covertly accessing private Amazon customer accounts through the Comet browser and its associated AI agent.