Amazon wants to use AI to equivalent shoppers to the correct products. Some users say their tool is doing a awesome job cosplaying a judgmental aunt.
The e-commerce elephantine launched its "About You" characteristic — basically a client dossier — before this year, pitching it as an editable catalog of preferences that Amazon has inferred to assistance shoppers navigate its huge marketplace. With a few clicks, shoppers can drag up Amazon's overview of them, see the conclusions it has drawn, and accurate or eliminate particulars they don't desire shaping their recommendations.
The tool has renewed notice on social media, particularly on Threads, anywhere it's now trending. Amazon users say its observations have been enlightening — if not a contact snide.
"I stumbled upon a leaf of assumptions that Amazon has made concerning me," one shopper wrote, during including a screenshot of Amazon's About You apparently saying she "has flat buttocks."
"I'm exactly speechless," they said.
Another customer said that Amazon resolute she "has a husband" — and that the "husband has skinny legs." A third stated the leaf had identified fairly a particular habit: "Uses phone in the ablution to peruse Kindle books."
"I average yes but wtf," the shopper wrote.
Amazon introduced About You in May as part of a broader AI buying push. The business says the recommendations arrive from customers' acquisition histories, searches, saved lists, merchandise reviews, and conversations alongside Amazon's Alexa for Shopping assistant.
Amazon has offered personalized buying recommendations for years. About You is distinct since it gives customers an unusually straightforward perspective of the overview rearward those suggestions — and, in several cases, an invitation to detect what Amazon thinks their purchases and Alexa conversations say concerning them.
Those sometimes keen remarks — and the command of their importance — appear particularly illuminating to several social media users.
"Has cats," one shopper said the bot observed, afterward "treats cats as biologic children." And then, finally, "has husband." Another individual on Threads posted a screenshot of the tool saying she "does not rely group easily" under a catalog of "Interests & Hobbies."
Meanwhile, on Reddit, a shopper stated the scheme recognized that they do "not cognize what truffle is expected to sensation like."
The characteristic is accessible in Amazon's Shopping app, on mobile web, and on desktop. In the app, you can discover what Amazon thinks concerning you by tapping the following:
- Account
- Shopping preferences
- About You
Shoppers can perspective and edit individual particulars that form their recommendations by tapping on all observation.
Several Business Insider reporters spent Tuesday dawn checking their own profiles. The results were mixed: One document incorrectly identified an editor's partner's name during correctly clocking their slow-but-steady kitchen-appliance upgrade. Another newsman stated Amazon groked her penchant for integrated produce.
What does your Amazon "About You" say? Drop the observations in this story's comments section, and we power contain them in a forthcoming story!
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Ben Shimkus is a newsman for the Business News desk. He writes concerning cars, transportation, retail, and jobs. Ben's reporting has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Verge, Automotive News, USA Today, AutoBody News, LGBTQ Nation, TopSpeed, and Out Magazine. He's additionally held personnel penning positions at The U.S. Sun and the Daily Mail. He graduated from NYU alongside a Master's in reporting in 2024. Email Ben at [email protected] or communication him privately on Signal at bshimkus.41.
