Sigificant Internet Freedom Issues at Stake in Legal Battle Between Amazon and Perplexity Subscribe to the Free Future Newsletter Free Future home A legal battle between Amazon and the artificial intelligence company Perplexity is raising important issues about the freedom to use automated tools that gather information about online platforms. This case could deter journalism and research in the public interest and threaten criminal and civil liability for the use of common browser extensions. Amazon’s lawsuit against Perplexity is over an AI “agent” built into Perplexity’s browser, Comet, which can shop on Amazon’s website for the user. Because of this feature, Amazon claims that Perplexity should therefore be liable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a broad and often over-used anti-hacking law that is intended to outlaw online behavior akin to breaking and entering. This fight will go before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on June 11 — and the consequences could impact much more than some might think. The ACLU has weighed in with a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that a decision in favor of Amazon could have far-reaching negative consequences, especially for journalists and researchers who use automated tools to investigate online platforms and hold them to account. In addition to the examples we wrote about in our brief, a win for Amazon could also impose liability on both developers and users of everyday tools that we use to surf the Web. AI agents are chatbots built on large language models (LLMs) that can also take actions (such as sending an email or buying toilet paper) on behalf of the user. Under the hood, it’s a combination of systems: there’s the LLM chatbot that acts as an interface for the user (e.g. where the user explains what email it wants sent), and there are other systems