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Amazon Dreams of AI Agents That Do the Shopping for You

Amazon feeds its large language models vast quantities of retail data. It says its AI agents might someday be smart enough to buy you stuff without you even having to ask.

Like many tech companies, Amazon is looking beyond chat and turning its attention toward the potential of so-called agents, which use LLMs but attempt to carry out useful tasks on users’ behalf either by writing code on-the-fly, inputing text, or moving a computer’s cursor. A Rufus agent might notice when the next book in a series someone is reading becomes available and then automatically recommend it, add it to your cart, or even buy it for you, says Rajiv Mehta, a vice president at Amazon who works on conversational AI shopping. When asked why it chose the book, the Rufus model stated that the themes and characters in Frank Miller's popular 1980s Batman series The Dark Knight Returns carry a similar resonance to those in Alan Moore's Watchmen.

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