Amazon AI podcast hosts pitch adult diapers and fake dog poop in bizarre shopping experiment

Amazon Is Using AI Podcast Hosts to Sell Adult Diapers and Fake Dog Poop

If you're a big podcast fan who is rapidly running out of new things to listen to, would you be interested in an AI-generated podcast promoting "fake dog poop"? Thanks to Amazon's new generative AI tool -- it's a real possibility. In recent years, we've seen Google NotebookLM show how generative AI can be used to turn existing text content into podcast-style audio output, complete with AI hosts playing off each other, which has been marketed to consumers like college students studying for exams. Now, Amazon is putting generative AI to the task of helping sell products and answer consumers' questions. Amazon has now launched "Join the chat," a new interactive feature that allows customers to ask AI hosts questions via text or voice while listening to an audio summary of a product. Amazon says the AI hosts take the question, deliver an answer in real time, and then pick back up where they left off, enabling customers to move from listening to participating. For example, users can ask, "Is this coffee maker better for a beginner or someone with barista experience?" and Amazon's tech will deliver a response generated from product details, customer reviews, and other publicly available information, delivered via an AI voice. Reactions on social media have been lukewarm, however. In one post on X, we can see Amazon's AI hosts praising the "attention to detail" in a $7.99 listing for fake dog poop, calling its "chunky texture and authentic brown coloring a real showstopper," though they said it might not be appropriate for "formal work environments." In another post highlighted by a Business Insider journalist, a British-sounding AI voice praised the "dual-action" approach of a brand of adult diaper cream, which the co-host described as "fascinating." "Is this hell?" wrote a communications professional on X in response. If you're interested in giving the feature a go, you'll need to open the Amazon Shopping app and then head to a product detail page. Then you'll need to tap the "Hear the highlights" button below the product image. Tap play to listen to a short audio conversation about key product features and who they might be appropriate for. If you then want to interact with the AI hosts, you'll need to tap the raised-hand icon to expand into the full-screen view. You can then either type your question or use the microphone icon to ask by voice. Amazon says you can minimize the player at any time and continue listening while you browse on Amazon. "Join the chat" is rolling out to US customers on iOS and Android now. But though the retail giant says it's available for "millions of products," it's not available for all of them, though it did provide examples of products where the feature is already up and running on its announcement page.

Amazon's New AI-Generated "Podcasts" Shilling Every Imaginable Products Are Already Backfiring Spectacularly

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Companies keep forcing AI features to do things that no one ever thought they needed, or indeed ever conceived of. In this unfortunate category, Amazon's new feature for generating mini-podcast segments that shill for products on its shopping platform really takes the cake. The bizarre feature was spotlighted by Katie Notopoulos at Business Insider, who recorded the Amazon AI's pathetic attempt of portraying an engaging discussion on just about the dumbest thing for anyone to talk about at length: adult diaper rash cream. Imagine the most grating podcast advert in the world. Not the kind where a pre-made commercial plays, but when the hosts have been paid by a brand to talk about its product, leveraging their "authentic" personas to wax lyrical about an AI business platform or weird supplement. It's kind of like that, but somehow vastly worse. "Today our AI-generated shopping show is exploring the Welmedix Rapid Relief Diaper Rash Cream," the AI host begins. "Emma, what makes this hospital-grade cream different from standard diaper rash products?" "Well, it's really interesting. This cream uses a dual-action approach" the co-host, "Emma," replies, before droning on with barely repackaged marketing copy. You can even call in with questions. When Notopoulos writes "help my butt hurts" in a chat window, the AI host responds, "Alright Katie, we've got you. You're dealing with discomfort, and this cream is designed for exactly that kind of irritation. Emma, what can you tell them?" It gets worse. Though the AI podcast feature doesn't work on all products, someone else found that it was even willing to glaze a "fake dog poop" item. "At four inches long, it's sized perfectly for believability," the chirpy AI enthuses. "The chunky texture and authentic brown coloring make it a real show-stopper." An Amazon spokesperson told Notopoulous that the AI "podcast" feature is "powered by several AI technologies working together, including Amazon Bedrock." The information it uses is based on product listings and what it pulls from other online sources, they added. Amazon's owner Jeff Bezos seems to have a predilection for faux AI podcasts (and AI in general). In December, his newspaper The Washington Post, against the wishes of staffers, launched an AI podcast feature that badly regurgitates its articles, with predictably disastrous results. Who are these fake podcasts for? And is this really what we're desiccating water tables, speed-running global warming, and ruining entire rural towns over? Yes, of course. In all, Amazon's new feature is a hellish experiment in engineering just about the most disingenuous content imaginable. But it's also kind of funny that, gazillions of dollars into the AI boom later, we've reinvented the late night TV infomercial, only instead of Billy Mays yelling at you, you're being bored to tears by a machine's bad impersonation of a podcaster who sold their soul to their show's sponsors years ago. Notopoulos also saw the gallows humor in the absurd feature. "I think it could be one of the funniest, closest endpoints to human civilization we've seen yet in our new AI-enabled world," she wrote.

Amazon's new AI shopping podcasts are going off the rails

Amazon is giving product pages the podcast treatment, and it's as useful as it sounds. This might sound like a neat new trick till you hear what some of these AI "hosts" are actually discussing. The company recently expanded its "Hear the highlights" feature with a new interactive mode called "Join the chat." This feature lets shoppers listen to AI-generated audio summaries about the products they are viewing, and even ask questions by text or voice while the audio is playing. It added a layer of interactivity, with these AI hosts being capable of pausing and answering in real time. But that's where the handy idea ends, and the bizarre bit starts. How the early examples are already strange Amazon's Hear the highlights creates short audio conversations about key product features, who a product might be good for, and what shoppers should know before buying. The feature basically pulls from product details, customer reviews, and other publicly available information. Recommended Videos In practice, a quick audio summary could help save time and cut through the mess of shopping pages. But the problem is that products do not always deserve a cheery mini-podcast. Futurism highlighted examples originally surfaced by Business Insider's Katie Notopoulos, including an AI-generated shopping discussion about adult diaper rash cream. In another example, the feature reportedly generated enthusiastic commentary for a fake dog poop product, praising details like its size and realism. At this point, it becomes an automated infomercial machine rather than a helpful shopping assistant. Useful idea with an awkward execution Amazon is trying to make the system more conversational. The company is already pushing AI deeper into its retail experience. Rufus is one such example, functioning as an AI shopping assistant that offers product summaries. Asking whether a humidifier works with essential oils, or whether earbuds are good for calls, can be genuinely helpful. But this is unintentionally funny when it is applied across odd, intimate, or novelty products.