Giant e-commerce company Amazon is reportedly testing an artificial intelligence (AI) feature that will help to summarize customers’ reviews.
The feature which is currently under testing will provide a brief overview of what customers liked and disliked about a product, which will come along with a disclaimer that the summary is “AI-generated from the text of customer reviews.
Speaking on the rollout of an AI feature to summarize product reviews, Amazon Spokesperson Lindsay Shanahan said, “We are significantly investing in generative AI across all of our businesses”.
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A sample of Amazon’s AI-generated reviews was spotted on a children’s toy product which read,
“This toy has received positive feedback from customers regarding its fun factor, appearance, value, performance, quality, charging, and leakage. However, the majority of customers have expressed negative opinions on these aspects. For example, some customers have paid over $100 for a toy that wasn’t worth it, while others have experienced issues with the product’s quality and charging. Despite mixed opinions on ease of use, the product seems to be fun and engaging”.
Technology officer at Amazon Mark Wieczorek stated that Amazon’s AI-generated product review summaries could be useful in guiding customers towards newer reviews, and a step towards reducing review moats.
Recall that in July 2022, Amazon filed a lawsuit against 11,000 people the company said operated Facebook groups that broker fake reviews on the site. The lawsuit stated that Facebook group members would get paid in cash or products in exchange for 5-star reviews. Fake reviews have continued to hamper customers’ confidence in Amazon’s products, which has impacted the business.
It is understood that Amazon’s platform has been saturated with so many Bogus reviews as using AI to summarize reviews could be a positive step taken, to get rid of fake reviews which will be very helpful to shoppers. It is known that fake reviews have made customers more than twice as likely to choose poor-quality products.
An investigation earlier conducted on Amazon product reviews found that many of them were not written by humans. Amazon has therefore assured that it is constantly evaluating emerging technologies and is relentlessly innovating to allow only genuine product reviews on its platform.
The company has also created clear policies that prohibit review abuse, including offering incentives like gift cards to write positive reviews. It will not hesitate to suspend, ban, and take legal action against anyone who violates these policies and removes inauthentic reviews.
The e-commerce giant wants to ensure that customers shop with confidence on the platform, knowing that reviews on any of its products are authentic and trustworthy.
These AI-generated reviews, according to experts, may be the next frontier of fake Amazon product reviews, an issue that Amazon has heavily dealt with in the past.