CONNECT WITH US
Tech

Tech

Why some websites are blocking AI agents from accessing the web

Engadget logo

Published on

Add as a preferred source on Google
Why some websites are blocking AI agents from accessing the web

Amazon is blocking rival shopping agents, and even websites that welcome AI assistants can stop them with an ordinary CAPTCHA.

An AI agent can take over your grocery shopping, right up until a website asks it to prove it's human. That's the problem Meta's Muse has encountered at Walmart (one of its retail partners), which says the verification checks weren't intended to stop the assistant. Amazon has been more direct, deliberately blocking the tool from shopping on its site, according to TechCrunch.

The appeal of personal AI agents like Meta's Muse is that these assistants can navigate websites, fill shopping carts and book travel instead of handing you recommendations and leaving the rest to you. However, giving an agent permission to act on your behalf doesn't mean a website has agreed to deal with it. Some restrictions are deliberate, while others come from security systems that can't reliably distinguish legitimate agents from unwanted automated traffic. Either way, you could end up back at the keyboard doing the very task you wanted to avoid.

Security is a bigger concern when money is involved. " The bank blocks those methods where possible, and Barnum warned that customers who hand over their credentials could be responsible if an agent takes an unwanted action. A botched grocery order is annoying enough, but an unauthorized bank transfer is a different kind of headache.



Source link
Related Topics:Tech

Disclaimer

We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We TheMorningPulse.fyi want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It's possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.