How Does AI Affect Your Online Shopping?

[CleverNickName]

Here's a hypothetical situation*:

You are browsing around for some new gaming products online--perhaps you're browsing some video games on Steam, or looking at RPG supplements on DriveThruRPG, or looking through an online catalog from your favorite indie game publisher. Something catches your eye, and the price is decent (say ~$30), so you scroll down and read the details. And near the bottom, right before the credits, you find a statement saying that the product you were looking at--text, art, logos, maybe the whole package--was created with AI.

How does that singular statement affect you, the consumer, in that moment? Remember, you have nothing else to go on: you can't examine the product before purchasing it (you're shopping online), you don't have any information about the specific AI used or the extent to which it was used (the product page didn't elaborate), no other details. All you have is the product ad copy, the $30 price tag, and a statement saying the product was generated by AI.

Having read that AI statement, are you now more or less likely to purchase it? Does it seem more or less valuable? Do you care how the product was generated? Has your interest in the product piqued, or faded? Do you buy or reject it purely on principle? Check any that apply.

*This happened to me, on Steam yesterday. And between that, and the thread about AI products and Amazon, I was inspired to put this poll together.

 

[Morrus]

How does that singular statement affect you, the consumer, in that moment? R

I nope out immediately.

 

[delericho]

In general, AI is a tool, much like any other, and can be used in good ways and bad ways (both in terms of quality and ethically). So I'm not automatically against it.

That said, the overwhelming majority of actual uses of AI have fallen on the bad side of the equation in one way or another. So a statement that a product used AI heavily does mean I'm less likely to want to buy it. Not an automatic deal-breaker... but given how few products I buy anyway, it's pretty close.

I'm generally not of a view that products should be required to disclose the use of AI. If I can tell it's been used, that almost certainly means it hasn't been used well enough; if I can't, it doesn't matter. I do think we need much tighter restrictions on the use of AI to get closer to requiring ethical use (we'll never be perfect, but we can be much better), but that really should come in the form of legislation - I'm under no illusions that my buying power has any weight whatsoever.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

Nope. Not wasting time or money on it.
If I wanted to wade through AI sludge, I'd generate it myself.

 

[sevenbastard]

Zero interest. There is so much real content why would we ever need AI ?

 

[Morrus]

Besides IF I wanted AI slop, which I don’t, but IF I did, why would I pay somebody else for it? I have access to ChatGPT just like they have.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Strong no on AI for me.