Amazon, in the latest confrontation between big tech companies and AI agents, has blocked access to "Muse", Meta's shopping AI agent, from its store. The decision was made after Amazon said Muse accessed the platform without clearly disclosing its identity and that its behavior could pose security and privacy risks.
According to ITNA citing Techspot, Meta introduced Muse as an AI agent a few days ago; a tool that can, with the user's permission, perform some tasks on their behalf and even complete online purchases. Amazon is one of the most important online stores used by this technology. However, Amazon had asked Meta to exclude its service from Muse, but Meta did not agree to this request.
Amazon claims Muse accessed the company's store, obtained users' login information, and performed purchasing tasks without disclosing its agent-driven nature. As a result, when Muse attempts to buy from Amazon, a message is displayed declaring this agent's access unauthorized.
Meta previously said Muse does not directly access users' passwords or payment methods and runs in a Secure VM in the company's cloud infrastructure. According to Meta's explanations, the user's account information is also kept in a secure storage system and the AI does not view it directly. Nonetheless, Amazon's recent claims about how Muse operates have raised questions about the agent's actual level of access.
This is not the first time Amazon has taken a stance against third-party AI agents. The company earlier warned Comet, the AI browser owned by Perplexity, and is now confronting AI agents from companies such as Google and OpenAI as well.
Alongside security and privacy concerns, an important economic factor is also involved. In addition to being the world's largest online store, Amazon earns significant revenue from displaying ads and sponsored pages. The company's advertising revenue last year reached about $68 billion; a figure that constitutes nearly 10 percent of Amazon's total revenue. The proliferation of AI agents that purchase directly on behalf of users could change how users interact with the store and Amazon's advertising model.