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In what may be one of the more questionable uses of AI to date, Amazon announced on Wednesday that it will display AI-generated images of products within its shopping app based on users\u2019 search queries. That\u2019s right \u2014 a retailer where people shop for real-world products thinks that displaying fake photos will \u201chelp\u201d consumers better find what they\u2019re looking for. <\/p>\n
Enough already. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how Amazon says in a blog post<\/a> that the feature will work. Customers may have something in mind but don\u2019t know the right term to describe it in a way that returns useful results. (The examples Amazon gives are things like \u201ccowl neck\u201d for a style of shirts or \u201crattan\u201d for furniture.)<\/p>\n When someone enters a search query, they\u2019ll be shown a variety of AI-generated product images below their autocomplete suggestions. (See above photo.)<\/p>\n For instance, if you search for a blue gingham dress, you might see a few dress styles \u2014 short or long sleeves, varying lengths, and other differences \u2014 appear as visual options. The idea is that clicking one would direct you to search results that better match that style, powered by Amazon\u2019s visual search capabilities.<\/p>\n In reality, it\u2019s somewhat bananas for a retailer to make up fake products as a way of guiding users to search results. <\/p>\n For starters, it\u2019s potentially misleading \u2014 customers who don\u2019t read carefully may think they\u2019re being directed to a page where they could find that exact dress, then be disappointed when it isn\u2019t available. And there\u2019s the fairly obvious question of why you\u2019d make up product images when you have a website full of real photographs of real products \u2014 which is presumably what an online shopper actually wants to see.<\/p>\n The feature follows a number of other attempts by Amazon to integrate AI into its retail site and shopping app, with mixed results. On the more useful end, Amazon already summarizes customer reviews<\/a> via AI, so you don\u2019t have to read them all to get a sense of the key pros and cons of a product. More bizarrely, it last year rolled out a short audio product summary<\/a> feature in which AI experts describe a product\u2019s highlights, podcast-style.<\/p>\n Other recent AI features include AI-generated \u201cshoppable collages\u201d to direct people to curated pages devoted to a particular fashion style; Amazon Lens Live<\/a>, which scans products in a camera\u2019s view to find visual matches; the ability to add text to visual searches; and a Lock Screen visual search widget for iOS.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Amazon also replaced its Rufus AI chatbot with Alexa for Shopping<\/a> to enable natural language shopping queries via voice and text.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n