A group of senators has requested that the Federal Trade Commission investigate Amazon and Walmart regarding their use of artificial intelligence. The request follows a report from the Columbia Law School Center for Law and the Economy titled Made in America, Hidden by AI.
The report claims that Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky chatbots can identify products labeled as Made in the USA but choose to suppress this information. According to the senators, Alexa stated that implementing a Made in USA filter would redirect sales away from overseas manufacturers.
The senators also allege that both chatbots fail to flag false Made in USA labels. In their correspondence, they noted that Sparky cited the low number of FTC enforcement cases against retailers as a reason for not creating proactive compliance mechanisms.
Amazon stated that it does not intentionally withhold country-of-origin information and that such data is displayed on product detail pages. The company added that it is working to improve the ability of Alexa for Shopping to provide this information to customers.
In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the FTC to prioritize the enforcement of Made in USA claims. The senators addressed their letter to FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson and Commissioner Mark R. Meador.
