Alert! Scammers review Amazon products using ChatGPT and give 5 stars

Users are already spotting fake Amazon reviews written through tools like ChatGPT, which could get much worse if not mitigated soon. Users, in most cases, noticed fake reviews starting with "As an AI language model." It means the uploader (read: scammer) didn't bother to check and copied the text as it is. However, there must be many reviews written by ChatGPT where the user has modified the text to make it appear genuine to others. That's just as bad as customer reviews play a crucial role when buying products online.

A tweet from a user (@drewcoffman) includes screenshots of multiple fake Amazon reviews written by generative AI. The screenshots highlight that the scammer used tools like ChatGPT to write fake reviews for a waist trimmer, a fifth-grade children's book, an aquarium light, and a cookbook. Another user (@juokaz) spotted a fake review about Optima batteries. As mentioned, all reviews begin with the text "As an AI language model", which indicates that the scammer used generative AI to write the user's review. Scammers have given all products with fake reviews a 5-star rating.

Earlier, Amazon and Flipkart highlighted the actions taken by the respective companies to fight fake user reviews. In July 2022, Amazon blogged that the company introduced "legal action against the administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups that attempt to orchestrate fake reviews on Amazon in exchange for money or free products".

In a post published in March 2023, Amazon said it had filed lawsuits against six defendants in new legal efforts to protect its customers and sales partners by stopping fake review brokers. Amazon has even spotted websites that help users write fake reviews. So naturally, the company goes after these websites.

In September 2022, Flipkart also published a post to help users identify fake products and sellers. However, as generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Bing, and Bard become more popular, the problem of fake reviews will increase.

Meanwhile, problems with generative AI aren't limited to fake reviews. Cybersecurity experts fear that scammers use ChatGPT and other AI tools to create malware. Some tech entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk, have warned against the widespread adoption of generative AI tools. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believe that generative AI will be part of society, with users and stakeholders only identifying problems early.