There’s a lot of stuff on Amazon. Dunk that into the basket of the most understated statements of 2025. Even though Amazon itself stocks “just” 12.2 million products in its own warehouses, the number of goods balloons to 353 million if you include all the third-party Amazon Marketplace vendors.
How in the blue hell are you supposed to find what you need? I do this for a living, and a lot of the time, my search queries turn up 12 pages of gobbledygook that I have to sort through. I could use a hand brushing aside the junk I’m not looking for, but is AI the best way to do it?
Now Amazon has unleashed Interests, an AI-powered tool to “help you quickly and easily find new items you might want.” I have questions, though. Will it actually steer me toward the things I’m looking for, or will it steer me toward the goods that serve Amazon’s bottom line? Maybe items they need to clear out of their inventory, or ones with particularly fat profit margins.
What I’m wondering is whether Amazon Interests in our best interests.
how it works
“Interests is currently available to a small subset of U.S. customers in our U.S. app (iOS and Android) and mobile website, and we look forward to rolling it out to the rest of U.S. customers in the coming months,” wrote Amazon.
Aren’t we all living in a Black Mirror episode, merely beta-tester automatons scurrying about like ants in Big Tech’s laboratory? Or is that just me?
“Interests works around the clock to find any new items that match your prompt, and it notifies you on any noteworthy updates,” Amazon went on to say in its press release. That sounds annoying.
When I’m shopping for something and I get as far as entering the product into the search bar, I’m looking to buy now. Or maybe soon. If I get a notification days later or a week later that a better deal is available, odds are I already bought something and don’t need an update by then.
Although when Amazon gives an example of more general terms, such as entering “Model building kits and accessories for hobbyist engineers and designers” or “Brewing tools and gadgets for coffee lovers” to “The latest pickleball gear and accessories,” I can see the value in being alerted to new gadgets in those broader categories.
Of course, it’s all designed to loosen the dollars from your banking account. Do I need an AI alerting me to fun, new things I’d totally buy if I were aware of them? God, no. Ignorance is one of my last defenses against spending too much money on cool stuff.
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