Walmart Faces FTC Probe Over AI-Driven 'Made in USA' Product Suppression
A letter from U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin and Rick Scott to the Federal Trade Commission has sent Walmart's stock (WMT) slipping, as concerns arise over potential government probes into claims that its AI shopping chatbots suppress 'Made in USA' products.
The senators claim that Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky AI shopping assistants are failing to flag fraudulently labelled goods and instead suppressing information about American-origin products while offering data on products made in other countries, such as China.
A study from the Center for Law and Economics at Columbia Law School found that these chatbots are capable of detecting mismatches between explicit 'made in USA' claims and contradictory information in product listings, but are not using this technology to crack down on those listings.