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Comment by raincole

2 days ago

ChatGPT just launched "shopping research."[0]

Hideous idea as it is, I fully expect they break even in 2026.

[0]: https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-shopping-research/

26 comments

raincole

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tarsinge  2 days ago

Google is already integrating this directly in search https://blog.google/products/shopping/agentic-checkout-holid...

  • nightshift1  2 days ago

    I tried it yesterday by comparing the specs of a few low-budget desktops for my father. It worked well and saved me a lot of time and the hassle of comparing multiple tabs on a PC.

    I am a bit worried about the feature where it calls the shops for inventory checking. That's the whole point of having a website. Now we are going to have expensive AI that calls other AI answering machines and no value will be added. Meanwhile, it will become even more difficult to talk to a human when necessary.

542458  2 days ago

Honestly, this is huge for people like me who tend to over-research and over-think the hell out of product choices. "Find me a top-fill warm-mist humidifier that looks nice, is competitively priced against similar products, and is available from a retailer in $city_name. Now watch for it to go on sale and lmk."

If they can figure out how to get the right kickbacks/referrals without compromising user trust and really nail the search and aggregation of data this could be a real money-maker.

  • chneu  2 days ago

    Trusting AI with your shopping is very short sighted.

    Lol what a terrible idea. Why not just hand every decision you'll ever make to AI?

    Nobody needs critical thinking or anything. Just have AI do it so you save $3 and 4 minutes.

    • wnolens  2 days ago

      Why would I want to spend 1-2h researching humidifiers if I can spend that time in any other way, and still end up with a humidifier that fits my needs first try?

      This kind of task is perfect for AI in a way that doesn't take away too much from the human experience. I'll keep my art, but shopping can die off.

      6 replies →

    • crims0n  2 days ago

      Fundamentally, is it really that different from being persuaded by an advertisement or trusting what the marketing says on the box?

    • matkoniecz  2 days ago

      > Just have AI do it so you save $3 and 4 minutes.

      Maybe I am deeply suboptimal, but typically this kind of decision takes me far more than 4 minutes.

  • phatfish  2 days ago

    For this to be useful they need up to date information, so it just Googles shit and reads Reddit comments. I just don't see how that is likely to be any better than Googling shit and reading Reddit comments yourself.

    If they had some direct feed of quality product information it could be interesting. But who would trust that to be impartial?

  • GuinansEyebrows  2 days ago

    > If they can figure out how to get the right kickbacks/referrals without compromising user trust

    i'm trying to envision a situation in which the former doesn't cancel out the latter but i'm having a pretty hard time doing that. it seems inevitable that these LLM services will just become another way to deliver advertised content to users.

  • squigz  2 days ago

    > If they can figure out how to get the right kickbacks/referrals without compromising user trust and really nail the search and aggregation of data this could be a real money-maker.

    As another commenter points out, "not compromising user trust" seems at odds with "money-maker" in the long-term. Surely Google and other large tech companies have demonstrated that to you at this point? I don't understand why so many people think OpenAI or any of them will be any different?

    • 542458  2 days ago

      I still approximately trust (yes, I know it's imperfect, but so is every other source) NYT's Wirecutter, and they do affiliate links.

  • AlexandrB  2 days ago

    > If they can figure out how to get the right kickbacks/referrals without compromising user trust

    This is a complete contradiction. Once there's money involved in the recommendation you can no longer trust the recommendation. At a minimum any kind of referral means that there's strong incentive to get you to buy something instead of telling you "there are no good options that meet your criteria". But the logical next step for this kind of system is companies paying money to tilt the recommendation in their favour. Would OpenAI leave that money on the table? I can't imagine they would.