Perplexity is calling out Amazon for what it describes as corporate bullying after receiving a legal threat demanding the company block users of its Comet AI assistant from shopping on Amazon’s platform.
Perplexity argues that while traditional software acts as a tool, agentic AI now operates more like labor, performing tasks on behalf of users, meaning consumers should have the right to delegate digital actions to their assistants.
The company says Amazon’s move threatens user autonomy and represents an attempt to protect advertising revenue by preventing AI from bypassing sponsored results and upsells.
The fight is over user agents: AI assistants that log in to services on behalf of the user, just as a human would, with the same permissions.
Perplexity says these agents should be private, personal, and powerful enough to carry out any digital task a user can do themselves, such as shopping.
The company characterizes Amazon’s posture as an attack on innovation and user choice, stating that the retail giant aims to block helpful independent assistants now to pave the way later for its own monetized agent ecosystem.
Perplexity says it will not comply with intimidation and will continue advocating for the right to use AI assistants freely across the open internet.
The company positions agentic AI as a turning point for user rights, privacy, and control, warning that if corporations succeed in restricting AI on behalf of users today, the future of personal autonomy online could suffer.
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