Amazon announces AI shopping assistant called Rufus

[APP]

An AI to assist you in shopping? Good or bad? Oh well, we'll find out in time.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/01/amazon-announces-ai-shopping-assistant-called-rufus.html

https://lifehacker.com/tech/amazon-ai-bot-rufus

[TimothyEllis]

I can see myself very soon.

"Yeah, f*ck off Rufus!"

[R. C.]

The Replicants are on the table in a laboratory...

(Bonus points for knowing the reference.)

R.C.

[LilyBLily]

Rufus? They can't be serious. That's like Elmer. Names people in the U.S. associate with rural stupidity. I live in a rural area with plenty of stupid people but haven't met anybody named Elmer or Rufus, but that's not the point, is it? Also, Rufus is a popular dog's name here.

[Bill Hiatt]

We always think of AI as like a human, but here, we have one with a dog's name, and it fetches. OMG, it's the world's first canine AI!

[TimothyEllis]

We always think of AI as like a human, but here, we have one with a dog's name, and it fetches. OMG, it's the world's first canine AI!

Or it could be Rufus from Supernatural.

[Hopscotch]

I hate shopping.  Love dogs.  But a pup overeager to please while hiding its greedy mercenary intent?  Naw.

[PJ Post]

It's the first of many.

But if it fixes Amazon's search engine so I can actually find what I'm looking for instead of pages and pages of unrelated sponsored products, I think I'm good with it - think.

[TimothyEllis]

But if it fixes Amazon's search engine so I can actually find what I'm looking for instead of pages and pages of unrelated sponsored products, I think I'm good with it - think.

It's much more likely to be a more ad based presenter.

Or in other words, much much worse than the search engine.

It will present what it wants to sell, not what people ask for.

Call me cynical, but I expect it to be a step backwards as far as finding things is concerned.

For example, I'd be asking it for new releases in SF&F TODAY, and expecting to get Dune.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I'll be disappointed if Amazon's new AI doesn't look like George Carlin and play the guitar.

[Bill Hiatt]

It's the first of many.

But if it fixes Amazon's search engine so I can actually find what I'm looking for instead of pages and pages of unrelated sponsored products, I think I'm good with it - think.

That would be nice. However, I think the likelihood of Amazon making it easier to avoid sponsored products in searches is minimal. I think it's more likely the AI will give the illusion of properly curating search results while just providing a face for the currently faceless algorithms.

That said, I don't think Amazon goes out of its way to serve us with irrelevant ads. My suspicion is that a lot of the ads have inappropriate keyword or product identifications. Amazon could do more to reject those perhaps, but that's a problem, like miscategorizing, that is sometimes the fault of the author.