Artificial Intelligence helping Amazon crack down on fake reviews

Tech and retail giant Amazon has said it’s using AI systems to crack down on fake reviews on the platform that can intentionally mislead potential customers.

While the company is already using machine learning models to detect indications of unusual behaviour that point to fake reviews, it revealed on Tuesday its interest in making additional investments toward sophisticated fraud-detection tools.

Using similar methods, Amazon said it took care of more than 200 million suspected fake reviews last year.

In the new statement, the multi-billion-dollar conglomerate highlighted its continued efforts to build sophisticated tools to protect customers and selling partners from fraudsters that try to profit by spreading fake reviews.

It raised warnings against “fake review brokers” who portray themselves as legitimate businesses and approach consumers via social media channels and messaging services, asking them to write fake reviews on the platform in exchange for incentives.

So far, Amazon has taken legal action against almost 100 such fraudsters who facilitated fake reviews and sued thousands of Facebook group administrators who tried to put insincere reviews. It also reported over 23,000 abusive social media groups.

The company called on the private sector, governments, and consumer groups to collaborate on stopping fake review brokers. It stressed the need for cross-industry sharing to effectively shut down such schemes and eventually protect more consumers.