Artificial intelligence falsifies customer reviews: Consumer advocates warn about ratings

Which product is really good and which is bad? Counterfeiters use AI software to generate customer reviews. Consumer advocates warn.

Consumer advocates are concerned. There are large numbers of fake reviews generated with artificial intelligence circulating on the internet.

Michaela Schroeder of the Federal Federation of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) said the FTC is already warning of fraudulent use of artificial intelligence to “create fake profiles and bogus customer reviews”. “We have to take that seriously.”

The problem with such reviews is that they can be hard to distinguish from reviews written by real people. “Many platform operators use software to look for clear language patterns in customer reviews that indicate fake language,” Schroeder said. Pattern recognition may not work with ChatGPT and other AI software.

The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, approved by the European Parliament on Wednesday, establishes a requirement that content produced using artificial intelligence be labeled. Schroeder said scammers would hardly stick to it. Information obligations to consumers thus provide only limited protection.