Perplexity Comet hurtling toward Amazon ban

Perplexity’s AI browser Comet has been banned from accessing Amazon’s website after the e-commerce giant obtained a court-ordered preliminary injunction.

But the ban won’t take effect immediately. The court on Monday issued an administrative stay of its order [PDF] for seven days to allow Perplexity to seek relief from the US Court of Appeals, which the company intends to do [PDF].

“Perplexity will continue to fight for the right of internet users to choose whatever AI they want,” a company spokesman told The Register.

Nonetheless, the court order casts a shadow on the widely hyped agent economy that imagines software agents visiting websites and buying things on behalf of human users. It finds that Amazon is likely to succeed in its claims that Perplexity has violated federal and state computer fraud laws by disguising its bot and breaking Amazon’s site access rules.

The judge’s take on the case suggests automated e-commerce transactions will require negotiation and agreements as opposed to the tech industry’s preference to move fast and break things. Evidence of this can be seen in eBay’s decision earlier this year to update its user agreement to ban…