Your AI Shopping Assistant Is Selling You Out | The Walrus
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The bots promise to get the best deals. Studies say they mostly find pricier, sponsored options
  • spinnetrouble@sh.itjust.works
    4·
    5 hours ago

    There’s an incredibly important piece of this that doesn’t get enough attention: there is nobody minding the store.

    Americans haven’t had any meaningful consumer protection legislation over the internet yet. It’s 2026 and we’re still waiting for things like net neutrality and essential privacy protections. Here’s a hint: they’re not going to materialize. It’s up to American legislators to set out rules on what behaviors are and aren’t allowed by companies trying to sell everything from internet service to underpants and water bottles, and they’re not doing it.

    Why not? Because there’s more money to be made from the corporations willing to (legally, through lobbying) buy legislator inaction, and the risk of not getting re-elected grows without those “campaign contributions.” Legislators also have to consider whether the corporations they’ve turned down will decide that they’ll get results they like more by throwing money at whomever runs against them in the next election. Once they lose their seat, they also lose the gravy train of lobbyist money.

    Whenever anybody asks in the future how America let themselves decline, how they allowed wealth inequality to spiral out of control, or how they gave up their gross dreams of worldwide hegemony, we can all point very clearly to the legislators who did nothing to protect the people they were elected to serve because of their own greed and self-interest. You’re welcome, world! Our problems are now also yours to live with because we’ve exported our incredibly invasive tech to all parts of the globe.

    Invest at home. PLEASE invest at home.

    • gramie@lemmy.ca
      2·
      8 hours ago

      the legislators who did nothing to protect the people they were elected to serve because of their own greed and self-interest.

      Thanks, Citizens United!

  • 404found@lemmy.zip
    2·
    11 hours ago

    I don’t find their shopping capabilities to be competent in the first place. Sending me to the more expensive items would actually be an upgrade from what I’ve come to expect.