Perplexity and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) engaged in a heated dispute after the e-commerce giant issued a legal threat to the AI startup over the use of its AI assistants for online shopping.
Perplexity Refuses To ‘Be Intimidated’
After Amazon demanded that Perplexity block Comet users from deploying their AI assistants on its platform—its first legal move against an AI company—Perplexity replied in a blog post titled “Bullying is not innovation,” on Tuesday.
The AI startup countered that its agent, operating under a human user's direction, inherently has the "same permissions" as the human and therefore does not need to identify itself as an agent.
Perplexity called Amazon’s move “a threat to all internet users.” The Aravind Srinivas-led start-up added that it “isn’t a reasonable legal position” and accused the e-commerce giant of using “bully tactic” to scare disruptive companies.
The AI startup also pointed out that Amazon itself had once "fought aggressively" against similar intimidating threats. Calling agentic shopping as the “natural evolution,” Perplexity stated that it won’t “be intimidated.”
Amazon Demands ‘Straightforward’ Approach
Amazon, however, notes that many other third-party agents acting on behalf of human users—such as food delivery platforms, courier services, and online travel agencies—clearly identify themselves. The company's statement implies that Perplexity could do the same and begin shopping through proper disclosure. The concern, however, is that Amazon might choose to block Comet or any similar third-party shopping agent from accessing its site.
The e-commerce giant stated that it believes "it's fairly straightforward" for third-party applications making purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses to "operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate."
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Perplexity’s Past Controversies
This legal dispute is the latest in a series of high-profile incidents involving Perplexity. In August, a Cloudflare report accused the startup of using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives, sparking controversy in the tech industry.
CEO, Aravind Srinivas, in October, warned against the misuse of AI tools. This warning came after a viral video showed Comet, Perplexity’s browser, completing an entire Coursera assignment in seconds.
Perplexity, backed by Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), SoftBank, and Jeff Bezos, also made headlines in August for its unsolicited $34.5 billion cash bid to acquire Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google’s Chrome browser. This bold move was seen as a potential game-changer in the tech industry.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
