亚马逊就“自主浏览”功能向Perplexity发出法律警告

内容来源:https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/04/amazon-sends-legal-threats-to-perplexity-over-agentic-browsing/
内容总结:
近日,人工智能搜索公司Perplexity与其电商巨头亚马逊爆发公开冲突。Perplexity在官方博客中披露,其开发的AI购物助手Comet因未主动声明机器人身份,被亚马逊认定违反平台条款,继而收到措辞严厉的律师函。该公司在题为《霸凌不是创新》的声明中指责亚马逊"对AI企业打响法律第一枪",称此举将损害全体互联网用户权益。
Perplexity主张,其AI助手基于用户指令操作,应自动继承用户的所有权限,无需额外标明机器人身份。但亚马逊在回应中强调,外卖平台、在线旅行社等第三方服务商均会明确标识代理身份,这是行业惯例。
业内观察指出,这场争执折射出人工智能代理服务普及过程中的核心矛盾。当消费者将购物决策权逐步交给AI时,电商平台既需要接纳新技术,又需防范机器购物行为对广告投放、商品推荐等传统商业模式的冲击。此前Cloudflare就曾指控Perplexity通过技术手段绕过网站对AI爬虫的屏蔽,预示了智能代理发展将面临的重重监管挑战。
作为电商领域的绝对主导者,亚马逊此次的强硬态度或将奠定行业规范:第三方AI代理必须亮明身份,而平台保留最终准入权。这场头部企业与AI新锐的博弈,可能成为塑造未来人机协作规则的重要分水岭。
中文翻译:
亚马逊与Perplexity公司周二双双公开确认,电商巨头已要求这家AI初创企业将其智能浏览工具从线上商店下架。Perplexity在题为《霸凌不是创新》的博客中披露,在多次警告其AI购物助手Comet未标明自动化程序身份、违反平台服务条款后,亚马逊向这家AI搜索引擎初创公司发出了措辞严厉的停止侵权警告函。
“本周Perplexity遭遇亚马逊的强势法律威胁,要求我们阻止Comet用户通过AI助手访问亚马逊。这是亚马逊首次对AI公司采取法律行动,也是对全体互联网用户的威胁。”Perplexity在博客中痛陈。
这家AI公司的核心论点在于:当其智能代理按人类用户指令操作时,理应自动获得与用户“同等权限”,故无需额外声明程序身份。亚马逊则针锋相对地指出,其他受用户委托的第三方代理均会明确身份:“外卖平台与餐厅、代购服务与商铺、在线旅行社与航空公司——所有同业者都是这样运作的。”
若采信亚马逊说法,Perplexity只需让程序表明身份即可继续购物。但风险在于:拥有自研购物机器人Rufus的亚马逊,仍可能封禁Comet或其他第三方购物程序。亚马逊在声明中暗示了这种可能性:“第三方应用若代表用户跨平台购物,理应公开运作并尊重服务商是否接纳的决定,这是基本准则。”
Perplexity直指亚马逊封杀动机实为保护广告与商品推广收入——与人类消费者不同,受命购买洗衣篮的AI程序既不会选择溢价商品,也不会被促销活动吸引而顺手购入布兰登·桑德森新书或限时耳机套装。
若觉此事似曾相识,只因早有先例。数月前Cloudflare发布研究报告,指控Perplexity在网站明确禁止AI爬虫的情况下仍强行抓取数据。值得玩味的是,当时不少人为Perplexity辩护,因这并非典型的恶意网络爬虫行为:Cloudflare记录显示,AI仅在用户查询特定网站时才会访问该站。支持者认为这与人类操作浏览器的模式无异。
然而争议在于,当网站明令拒绝机器人访问时,Perplexity采取了隐藏身份等可疑手段。正如TechCrunch当时报道所言,Cloudflare事件早已预示:若智能代理时代真如硅谷预言般降临,当消费者将购物、旅行预订、餐厅预约全权交由AI代理,网站完全封杀机器人是否符合其最佳利益?又该如何与之协作?
Perplexity关于“亚马逊正在树立先例”的论断或许不虚。作为电商领域的巨无霸,亚马逊正明确传递其游戏规则:智能代理必须表明身份,把最终决定权交还网站方。
(文末重复的Disrupt 2026大会推广内容已省略)
英文来源:
Amazon has told Perplexity to get its agentic browser out of its online store, the companies both confirmed publicly on Tuesday. After warning Perplexity multiple times that Comet, its AI-powered shopping assistant, was violating Amazon’s terms of service by not identifying itself as an agent, the e-commerce giant sent the AI search engine startup a sternly worded cease-and-desist letter, Perplexity wrote in a blog post titled “Bullying is not innovation.”
“This week, Perplexity received an aggressive legal threat from Amazon, demanding we prohibit Comet users from using their AI assistants on Amazon. This is Amazon’s first legal salvo against an AI company, and it is a threat to all internet users,” Perplexity lamented in the blog post.
Perplexity’s argument is that, since its agent is acting on behalf of a human user’s direction, the agent automatically has the “same permissions” as the human user. The implication is that it doesn’t have to identify itself as an agent.
Amazon’s response points out that other third-party agents working at the behest of human users do identify themselves. “It is how others operate, including food delivery apps and the restaurants they take orders for, delivery service apps and the stores they shop from, and online travel agencies and the airlines they book tickets with for customers,” Amazon’s statement explains.
If Amazon is to be believed, then Perplexity could simply identify its agent and start shopping. Of course, the risk is that Amazon, which has its own shopping bot called Rufus, could also block Comet — or any other third-party agentic shopper — from its site.
Amazon suggests as much as its statement, which also says, “We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate.”
Perplexity claims that Amazon would block the shopping bot because Amazon wants to sell advertising and product placements. Unlike human shoppers, a bot tasked with buying a new laundry basket presumably wouldn’t find itself buying a more expensive one, or getting lured into buying the latest Brandon Sanderson novel and a new set of earphones (on sale!).
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Add yourself to the Disrupt 2026 waitlist to be first in line when Early Bird tickets drop. Past Disrupts have brought Google Cloud, Netflix, Microsoft, Box, Phia, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, and Vinod Khosla to the stages — part of 250+ industry leaders driving 200+ sessions built to fuel your growth and sharpen your edge. Plus, meet the hundreds of startups innovating across every sector.
If all of this sounds a bit familiar, that’s because it is. A few months ago, Cloudflare published research accusing Perplexity of scraping websites while specifically defying requests from websites blocking AI bots. Interestingly, many people came to Perplexity’s defense that time, because this wasn’t a clear-cut case of web crawler bad behavior. Cloudflare documented how the AI was accessing a specific public website when its user asked about that specific website. Perplexity fans argued that this is exactly what every human-operated web browser does.
On the other hand, Perplexity was using some questionable methods to do that accessing when a website opted out of bots, like hiding its identity.
As TechCrunch reported at the time, the Cloudflare incident foreshadowed the challenges to come if the agentic world materializes as Silicon Valley predicts it will. If consumers and companies outsource their shopping, travel bookings, and restaurant reservations to bots, will it be in the best interest of websites to block bots entirely? How will they allow and work with them?
Perplexity may be right in that Amazon is setting a precedent. As the 800-pound gorilla in e-commerce, it is clearly saying that the way this should work is for an agent to identify itself and let the website decide.
文章标题:亚马逊就“自主浏览”功能向Perplexity发出法律警告
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