According to a report by the Associated Press, the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is presenting unprecedented challenges for businesses, service providers, and consumers. These tools allow users to efficiently generate novel and detailed online reviews with minimal human intervention, exacerbating the problem of fake reviews.
The report notes that fake reviews have long plagued well-known e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Yelp. These reviews are often traded in private social media groups between fake review brokers and businesses willing to pay for them. Sometimes, businesses even incentivize customers to write positive reviews by offering rewards like gift cards.
However, the popularity of AI text generation tools, represented by OpenAI's ChatGPT, has enabled fraudsters to generate fake reviews more quickly and in larger volumes. According to technology industry experts, this deceptive practice is illegal in the United States and occurs year-round, but the harm caused by fake reviews is particularly severe during the holiday shopping season, as many people rely on reviews to help them purchase gifts.
A tech company and watchdog organization called Transparency Company stated that they use software to detect fake reviews and have found a significant increase in AI-generated reviews since mid-2023, with numbers continuing to rise.
The addition of AI tools has made the generation of fake reviews more covert and difficult to identify. This not only harms consumer interests but also poses a serious threat to the trustworthiness of e-commerce platforms. Effectively combating AI-generated fake reviews has become a challenging issue for e-commerce platforms and regulatory agencies.