FTC Called to Probe Amazon and Walmart AI Shopping Assistants

Senators Tammy Baldwin and Rick Scott have called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky AI shopping assistant over allegations of suppressing information about U.S.-made products.

The senators pointed to a study led by former FTC Chair Lina Khan, which found that the chatbots provided less information on U.S.-made goods compared to products from countries like China. The study also discovered that AI shopping assistants can identify potentially false 'Made in USA' labels, but major retailers are not using this capability to crack down on such listings.

Amazon rejected the allegation, stating that it intentionally withholds country-of-origin information from customers. However, the company acknowledged that Alexa for Shopping is still being improved and directs users to product detail pages when they ask where a product was made.