Shopping with AI

I imagine we’ve all used Google to help us shop. I’ve often wondered how many of the options it’s presented to me were because Google has been paid to offer them. Then, of course, there are the links to items that appear at the top of the list. Are they offered because Google is being paid to offer them? Sure, Google will display “Sponsored” but how many of us notice that? Wouldn’t it be nice to trust that the items offered are actually in response to my request and adhere to my requirements? If I’m looking for a good all around knife to be used in the kitchen that costs less than $20 that I won’t be offered knives that cost $30, $40, or $50? What if I’m looking for a good umbrella that resists being turned inside out by the wind, wouldn’t it be nice to have them ranked by price?

Artificial Intelligence to the rescue!

OpenAI has recently announced that they support shopping on ALL ChatGPT plans including the free plan (https://www.wired.com/story/openai-adds-shopping-to-chatgpt/ for details) but only if you turn OFF web browsing because with web browsing on ChatGPT can draw results from Bing which accepts sponsored results. Note that their position on sponsored results may change so keep your eyes open. For reference, Gemini, Copilot, and the free version of Perplexity accept or use sponsored results. Brave browser’s search engine uses sponsored results for free users but not users on a paid plan. DuckDuckGo’s results may include sponsored results but they should be clearly marked.

Don’t just use AI as a search engine!

I mean of course you can just ask AI for “good kitchen knife under $20” but some recent work suggests that we get better results if we personalize our request (which, as we’ve said before, is called a prompt). So, we might say “I need to replace my favorite kitchen knife. I want one for under $20 that is a good all around knife.” This prompt adds a lot more context to the request - the AI can look for knives that people have declared to be their favorite in addition to costing less than $20 and being a good all around knife for kitchen use.

If you’re looking for a gift for a friend who loves to cook you might say “I’m looking for a unique and fun gift for a friend whose birthday is May 20. She loves to cook and spends a lot of time in her kitchen.” You’ve given a lot more context here including that it’s for a woman and that her birthday is May 20. Treating the AI as a pure search engine, it would be difficult to include all of that context. And it sets a time frame for delivery so the AI knows when you need it. You can specify that you want it delivered to you and when you will need it in order to get it to your friend by their birthday. You could add “Remind me about this next year.” and now you’ve given it a whole context as well as setting up a reminder for you.

Could you do this with a search engine and bypass AI altogether? Sure. Remember, AI is not creating information. It is using information it has been trained with to answer your questions. It’s putting together information from all those sources, throwing out things that don’t meet your criteria, and then presenting that to you. So you could ask a search engine for reviews of kitchen knives under $20 or magazine articles with quirky gifts for home cooks. You could then search through the search results, read a few articles and make your own determination. Most search engines nowadays will give you a summary of its results so you may not even have to sort through the results.

Then, of course, there are times when additional context isn’t really needed. “Who won the basketball game last night” is just fine. You don’t necessarily need to add that you’re in a pool with your coworkers. Unless you have set up a temporary chat with your AI, it will likely remember many of the things you’ve told it. A gift for a friend is a lot different from telling your AI that you participate in basketball pools. But, in this case, you have told your AI that you’re interested in sports, basketball in particular.

Consider what you want your AI to remember

Think a little about what information you’re giving your AI. You can think of it as your friend but remember that it’s NOT a friend but a computer-based helper or assistant. It’s likely run by a company one of whose goals is to make money. Even if that company’s Terms of Service assures you that your information will be kept private the site can be hacked or the company can be bought and those assurances might go out the window. Perhaps in the future we’ll be able to trust our AIs to be friends.

That’s all for this time

I hope I’ve given you some ideas about how to use your favorite AI to help you shop and also how to get better answers from it. Don't hesitate to write to me if you have questions!

As always, my intent is to help you understand the basics and equip you to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, to sign up for my newsletter, or whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI!

If you like, you can read my most recent newsletter in the Hillsboro Times Gazette at https://go.ttot.link/TG-Column - I should have that link updated shortly after this edition of the newsletter appears in the online version of the newspaper.