Elon Musk responded to Amazon's ban on Meta's shopping agent Muse, stating that if access is through the user's own IP and cookies, Amazon will be unable to distinguish whether the order is placed by a human or an AI acting on their behalf.

The immediate trigger was Amazon cutting off Muse's ability to place orders on behalf of customers. A pop-up stated "Unauthorized AI agents continuing to access violate terms of use." Amazon accused Meta of not informing them in advance, not disclosing identity while browsing, and allegedly scraping stored user credentials; Meta claimed that the model does not see passwords and payment methods, and that credentials are securely stored for authentication. At the same time, Amazon also filed a complaint with the Ninth Circuit Court against Perplexity, alleging that its Comet copied Amazon session cookies to a cloud-based virtual browser for access.

This conflict arises at a time when agent shopping is just beginning to gain traction. Amazon itself has launched Rufus and Alexa for Shopping, with approximately 300 million users expected to have used Rufus by 2025, achieving a purchase probability of about 60%; CEO Andy Jassy publicly bets that customers will ultimately choose the retailer's own shopping agents over horizontal agents like ChatGPT. Amazon aims to protect recommendations, price comparisons, checkout, and advertising space, preventing third-party agents from turning the shelves into callable APIs.

On a technical level, Musk pointed out a vulnerability in session identity: if an agent resides in the user's browser, IP, and cookies, anti-scraping measures will still see "this account itself." Amazon is currently blocking identifiable automated browsers and undisclosed agents; once an agent fully simulates the local session, the cost of banning will turn into collateral damage against real users.

The buying side consists of companies like Meta, Perplexity, and those creating browser agents, betting that the agent layer will rewrite the e-commerce entry point; the selling side includes Amazon, which wants to maintain traffic and advertising revenue, and compliant funds that fear credential leakage. The event is strongly driven: on the day of the ban, the question of "who owns the shopping session" became a public confrontation. Beneficiaries are agents that can hide orders within user sessions; those under pressure are platforms that rely on identifying machine traffic to protect their shelves.

The market is trading the ownership of checkout rights: the shelves still belong to Amazon, but if decision-making power is seized by agents, advertising bidding and proprietary recommendations will depreciate.

Source: Public Information