Amazon has restricted access to Muse, a new artificial intelligence agent developed by Meta, on its e-commerce platform. According to GeekWire, this restriction was implemented because the retailer observed that the assistant was making purchases and accessing account information without providing formal identification.
For Amazon, such conduct violates the platform's terms of service and may pose risks to consumer security. Muse, launched this month, was designed to perform tasks autonomously, such as filling out forms and completing orders on behalf of the user.
Initially, Amazon sought an agreement, asking Facebook's controller to voluntarily remove the site from the robot's reach, but discussions did not progress. Without reaching a consensus, users who tried to use the Meta assistant for purchases last weekend were confronted with an error message, warning that continuous access by an unauthorized agent violates the terms of use signed by customers.
Amazon maintains that Muse operates by accessing order histories and processing transactions without obtaining explicit consent from the store. A company spokesperson emphasized that third-party applications with purchasing capabilities must operate transparently to ensure a safer and more reliable experience.
In response, Meta guaranteed that the tool is completely secure and was developed prioritizing privacy. The tool's creator stated that the agent does not have visibility into consumers' passwords or payment methods. According to Meta, credentials entered by the user in the browser are stored in an isolated virtual machine, allowing the AI to use them without direct exposure.
The owner of WhatsApp also stressed that any sensitive action, such as finalizing a financial transaction, requires mandatory prior user approval and verification by a second internal monitoring agent called Sentinel.
It is worth noting that both companies maintain an established partnership since 2023 for integrated sales on Instagram and signed a high-value contract in April for processing AI loads on Amazon's own cloud infrastructure.
This is not the first case where the retail giant imposes limits on AI traffic. Amazon had already prevented other autonomous purchasing systems from Google and OpenAI, in addition to being involved in litigation against the startup Perplexity due to the use of the AI browser Comet to track store pages.
In parallel, Amazon is launching its own AI solutions, such as the recent Alexa for Shopping. However, the company highlights that its own assistants identify themselves when accessing third-party websites, giving brands the option to reject automated traffic on their domains.
