US Senators Accuse Amazon and Walmart AI Bots of Favoring Foreign Goods Over US-Made Products

Two US senators have called for an investigation into Amazon and Walmart's AI shopping chatbots. The senators claim that these tools suppress 'Made in USA' products and fail to flag fraudulently labeled goods.

The complaint was lodged by Senators Tammy Baldwin and Rick Scott, who wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging it to investigate Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky AI shopping assistants. The senators cited a study led by former FTC Chair Lina Khan, which found that these chatbots suppress information about American-origin products while offering data on products made in other countries.

The study also revealed that the chatbots can detect when 'Made in USA' product labels are false, but the retailers are not using this technology to crack down on listings. When researchers asked Walmart's Sparky why it did not flag suspicious claims, the chatbot cited limited FTC enforcement as a business calculation.