FTC Investigation Sought Over Alleged Bias in Retail Chatbots

U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin and Rick Scott have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky AI tools.

The lawmakers claim that these chatbots hide information about products made in the United States while failing to catch fake American-made labels.

A study led by former FTC Chair Lina Khan found that when researchers asked Amazon's Alexa why it lacks a filter for American-made goods, the chatbot replied that adding one would shift major sales away from its largest base of overseas sellers.

Walmart's Sparky was also questioned about not flagging suspicious origin claims, and the tool called the lack of action a business calculation based on limited FTC checks on big stores.