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It makes total sense for Amazon to block agents. It sucks having to manually check multiple sites for prices and delivery of something you want so is easier jus

by rr808 13d ago

It makes total sense for Amazon to block agents. It sucks having to manually check multiple sites for prices and delivery of something you want so is easier just to use Amazon which is usually very good. If people start using agents Amazon is less likely to get the sale and are more vulnerable to competition. Better to kill this trend off asap.

tantalor 13d ago
Sounds like Amazon is trying to use its monopoly position to give it an competitive advantage over smaller stores.
fastball 13d ago
Amazon is not usually very good anymore, quality has suffered massively.
- herpdyderp 13d ago
  I still prefer the Amazon shopping experience to anything else, unless I already know the product is available locally. The primary quality problem I've run into is the quality of the products themselves.
Buttons840 13d ago
In general, preventing consumers from having fully featured AIs (especially local ones) will be worth about 10 trillion dollars to companies. That's my prediction. Amazon is one example. If my basement AI drives my browser and never clicks an ad, Amazon loses big. Or, the ad industry in general -- imagine the basement AI filtering out all ads at the analog level so nobody in my house ever sees an ad, and no software update can change that. Or other optimizations. Right now companies enjoy a power imbalance because they have people who ruthlessly optimize 24/7 to save a buck. I can't do the same, because I have to work, and also prefer to spend my personal time with family -- a foolish thing to do in a capitalist society, at least from a capital perspective. Imagine I have an AI wheeling and dealing on my behalf 24/7 too. Especially in an age of online shopping and product deliveries, my AI will absolutely order from your competitor to save a penny, my AI will absolutely spend 400 hours disputing a medical bill I don't think is right, barely an inconvenience to me.
- nancyminusone 13d ago
  The ads (in general) will be redirected to where you will see it, regardless of whether or not Amazon allows bots. You don't think you're getting off that easily, do you?
  - geodel 13d ago
    > You don't think you're getting off that easily, do you? Agreed. But that's where Amazon needs some thrashing from users, competitors and regulators to start with.
- awongh 13d ago
  One of the optimistic aspects of what's happening is that it doesn't seem like the leading model capabilities are outpacing the more open ones by that much- that just as a general principal there are pretty ok models relatively close behind the best ones. This could mean the long term viability of my open claw bot to shop for me- that openai / google etc won't control AI, and I'll still just be able to use a model via API to do what's actually in my own self-interest.
brookst 13d ago
I don't think it does make sense. I think Amazon is way overestimating brand loyalty, and underestimating how much of their success comes from being a one-stop shop for everything. I'm using Claude for everything from finances to dinner planning to project planning. If Amazon doesn't let Claude search and buy, I'm not abandoning Claude, I'm abandoning Amazon. As long as my actions are as simple as possible, I don't care whether Claude is searching 5000 online retailers or only 4999, minus Amazon. I'm certainly not going to say "ok, this project requires buying 13 things for about $500, but I don't see amazon in the list, so let me go manually search for each one on Amazon and see if they might have a better price or something." This is Walmart / Apple Pay all over again. Yes, near-monopolies, lots of power. But they got there by making things easy for consumers. Making things difficult to force consumer behavior never ends well.
- gjsman-1000 13d ago
  Most people don't have the disposable income to ever let an agent casually make a purchase for them.
  - brookst 13d ago
    I never let agents make purchases unsupervised. But that wasn't the point; the point is that the convenience of getting a complete list including multiple-vendors when pricing makes sense is way better than going to amazon and searching one by one, therefore Amazon will lose this power play. The same would be true for someone shopping for one $10 item.
lucumo 13d ago
I always check Google before Amazon, because it's impossible to find anything on Amazon. Amazon is a bit like the bargain bin of a DYI shop. If it's immediately visible it's okay, of not, don't bother searching. Half the time I can't even find the category page. And if I do find it, the filters will just be useless anyway.
tidbeck 13d ago
Should not stores make shopping with AI easier instead, as the number of ”customers” that are agents will increase and they will shop where they can?
dist-epoch 13d ago
Amazon is supposed to be the cheapest/best delivery store due to it's huge scale. It's how they killed the competition.

by rr808 13d ago

tantalor 13d ago

Sounds like Amazon is trying to use its monopoly position to give it an competitive advantage over smaller stores.

fastball 13d ago

Amazon is not usually very good anymore, quality has suffered massively.

herpdyderp 13d ago
I still prefer the Amazon shopping experience to anything else, unless I already know the product is available locally. The primary quality problem I've run into is the quality of the products themselves.

Buttons840 13d ago

In general, preventing consumers from having fully featured AIs (especially local ones) will be worth about 10 trillion dollars to companies. That's my prediction. Amazon is one example. If my basement AI drives my browser and never clicks an ad, Amazon loses big. Or, the ad industry in general -- imagine the basement AI filtering out all ads at the analog level so nobody in my house ever sees an ad, and no software update can change that. Or other optimizations. Right now companies enjoy a power imbalance because they have people who ruthlessly optimize 24/7 to save a buck. I can't do the same, because I have to work, and also prefer to spend my personal time with family -- a foolish thing to do in a capitalist society, at least from a capital perspective. Imagine I have an AI wheeling and dealing on my behalf 24/7 too. Especially in an age of online shopping and product deliveries, my AI will absolutely order from your competitor to save a penny, my AI will absolutely spend 400 hours disputing a medical bill I don't think is right, barely an inconvenience to me.

nancyminusone 13d ago
The ads (in general) will be redirected to where you will see it, regardless of whether or not Amazon allows bots. You don't think you're getting off that easily, do you?
- geodel 13d ago
  > You don't think you're getting off that easily, do you? Agreed. But that's where Amazon needs some thrashing from users, competitors and regulators to start with.
awongh 13d ago
One of the optimistic aspects of what's happening is that it doesn't seem like the leading model capabilities are outpacing the more open ones by that much- that just as a general principal there are pretty ok models relatively close behind the best ones. This could mean the long term viability of my open claw bot to shop for me- that openai / google etc won't control AI, and I'll still just be able to use a model via API to do what's actually in my own self-interest.

brookst 13d ago

I don't think it does make sense. I think Amazon is way overestimating brand loyalty, and underestimating how much of their success comes from being a one-stop shop for everything. I'm using Claude for everything from finances to dinner planning to project planning. If Amazon doesn't let Claude search and buy, I'm not abandoning Claude, I'm abandoning Amazon. As long as my actions are as simple as possible, I don't care whether Claude is searching 5000 online retailers or only 4999, minus Amazon. I'm certainly not going to say "ok, this project requires buying 13 things for about $500, but I don't see amazon in the list, so let me go manually search for each one on Amazon and see if they might have a better price or something." This is Walmart / Apple Pay all over again. Yes, near-monopolies, lots of power. But they got there by making things easy for consumers. Making things difficult to force consumer behavior never ends well.

gjsman-1000 13d ago
Most people don't have the disposable income to ever let an agent casually make a purchase for them.
- brookst 13d ago
  I never let agents make purchases unsupervised. But that wasn't the point; the point is that the convenience of getting a complete list including multiple-vendors when pricing makes sense is way better than going to amazon and searching one by one, therefore Amazon will lose this power play. The same would be true for someone shopping for one $10 item.

lucumo 13d ago

I always check Google before Amazon, because it's impossible to find anything on Amazon. Amazon is a bit like the bargain bin of a DYI shop. If it's immediately visible it's okay, of not, don't bother searching. Half the time I can't even find the category page. And if I do find it, the filters will just be useless anyway.

tidbeck 13d ago

Should not stores make shopping with AI easier instead, as the number of ”customers” that are agents will increase and they will shop where they can?

dist-epoch 13d ago

Amazon is supposed to be the cheapest/best delivery store due to it's huge scale. It's how they killed the competition.