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https://www.productionai.institute/graph/events/evt-aiid-251

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Production AI Institute public record · AI Incident Database: Amazon Allegedly Tweaked Search Algorithm to Boost Its Own Products · observed 2023-05-08
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AI Incident Database: Amazon Allegedly Tweaked Search Algorithm to Boost Its Own Products

Amazon tweaked product-search algorithm to boost and guide customers towards more profitable in-house products instead of showing mainly most-relevant and best-selling listings, which its internal engineers and lawyers alleged to violate company’s best-for-customer principle.

AI Incident Database · Incident 251

Operator lens (medium): inspect D2 (output validation), D6 (autonomy oversight).

Confidence
82%
Sources
3
Entities
3
Detected
detected 1168d ago

Event summary

Amazon tweaked product-search algorithm to boost and guide customers towards more profitable in-house products instead of showing mainly most-relevant and best-selling listings, which its internal engineers and lawyers alleged to violate company’s best-for-customer principle.

D2D6

Linked entities

  • Amazon

    vendor | 70%

  • small-businesses-on-amazon

    organisation | 70%

  • amazon-customers

    organisation | 70%

Related graph edges

EdgeTypeConfidence
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d6maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d6maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d6maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d6maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d6maps to60%
ent-vendor-amazon to ent-psf-d6maps to60%

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Event dates

  • Happened 1 Aug 2018

  • Detected 8 May 2023

Sources

  • AI Incident Database - Incident 251

    secondary | checked 9 July 2026

    Open source
  • Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products

    secondary | checked 16 June 2022

    Open source
  • Amazon reportedly changed its search results to boost more profitable products

    secondary | checked 18 Dec 2022

    Open source
Cite this record

"AI Incident Database: Amazon Allegedly Tweaked Search Algorithm to Boost Its Own Products." https://www.productionai.institute/graph/events/evt-aiid-251 (observed 2018-08-01; retrieved 2026-07-19). PAI.

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