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    Target puts customers on the hook for AI shopping assistant errors
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    Target puts customers on the hook for AI shopping assistant errors


    Target puts customers on the hook for AI shopping assistant errors

    https://www.techspot.com/news/111962-target-puts-customers-hook-ai-shopping-assistant-errors.html

    View 46 Comments

    46 Comments

    1. GrayBeardBoardGamer on

      That’s enough of a peek into TOS for me to know to never, ever use AI to shop. Not that I even wanted to or tried. but this cements it.

    2. WloveW on

      Zero responsibility for corporations in today’s America. All punishment is for the citizens. 

    3. JDGumby on

      > If you use Target’s upcoming AI shopping assistant and it orders items you didn’t ask for, you might have to pay for them.

      If it were your own AI agent, this would be understandable. But NOT when it’s the site’s own. Makes me glad Target’s foray into Canada was a complete flop.

    4. takingastep on

      Seems like Target’s abandoning the “the customer is always right” attitude. Now it seems to be “the customer is always at fault and automatically owes us money”.

    5. mixduptransistor on

      Literally no one is asking for this stuff. The attempt to cram AI down the throats of consumers is like asking them to buy SAP to manage their household budgets

      AI is a business tool, it’s not a viable consumer product

    7. johnoliversdimples on

      Some of us have been boycotting them since Jan 2025. Do yourself a favor.

    8. FanDry5374 on

      Makes sense, if you are dumb enough to let AI near your shopping (and sooo many other things) it’s obviously your fault.

    9. hansrotec on

      Are they going to fix their inventory management? No? Then I can’t really shop there as explicitly what I need is never in stock at the store closest to me.

    11. feurie on

      Honestly is this a super vague what if scenario.

      Is the assistant filling up cart of random stuff or is it just getting the wrong flavor of candy? Is it submitting the order or is it just filling the cart?

    12. MyStoopidStuff on

      Seems strange that Target is demanding customers take responsibility for the actions of an AI agent that Target set up.

    13. vaporeng on

      When is someone gonna make something useful with ai?  Make me a robot that folds my clothes.  People love to shop nobody wants an ai for that.  Next they gonna make a robot that plays tennis so we don’t have to.

    14. AppropriateGoose3828 on

      Kroger self Checkout constantly tries to call me a thief. Don’t scan an item and have another in your hand, you know in preparation to scan, cause it causes an alarm and it shows you a recording of you. The AI see this item being scanned but somehow says you scanning another on its place. Every time I go it has someone come confirm the amount of items. I

    15. Yourownhands52 on

      Ai bubble needs to pop already.   

      The people are:

      -paying AI electricity and water bills

      -being arested from different states with no human oversight

      -now paying for AI mistakes

      -people with mrtal and physical disabilities are being transferred to lower care levels by AI systems that have no idea what their needs are

      – stealing peoples jobs all over the world

      Anyone else care to make a list of AI Company bullshit with me?  What am I missing?

      Edit:sorry for format on mobile.

    17. Fitz911 on

      > jumping on the AI bandwagon by introducing an assistant that can suggest products and complete purchases for customers. The pitch is convenience: less browsing, fewer clicks, and an easier way to fill a cart.

      TF is wrong with people?

    18. xraynorx on

      Haven’t been purchased anything at Target for over a year now. No need to start now.

    20. Jealous_Acorn on

      I’m sure glad I don’t use AI and stopped shopping at Target when they bent the knee to MAGA.

      Now I get to sit here, continuing to live my life, reading about how millions others refuse to make any change in their life and instead heavily rely on the conveniences of modern American monopolies and environmentally harmful technology.

      Customers on the hook, this is what you get for relying on entities that clearly do not give two shits about us.

    22. carlitospig on

      All Target had to do was remember their target customers and this all could have been avoided years ago. But nope, they keep hiring CEOs with stale ideas and keep reducing Target’s public value.

      It’s such a damn shame. Twenty years ago Target was set to take over the world of shopping and now look at what it has to do to try and create a competitive edge out of nothing.

    23. ImOldGregg_77 on

      File a fraud claim with your bank, dispute the charges. They will do a charge back to Target. Fuck these greedy ass coperations.

    24. Halofagoodtime1980 on

      AI needs to go away….consumers should not pay the price for the monstrousity it is.

    25. WhichEmailWasIt on

      Already stopped going when they went back on DEI policies. This has cemented it for me.

    28. XThePlaysTheThingX on

      Walmart launched a similar AI assistant within their app not long ago called Sparky that has the same behaviors. It will just put a bunch of shit in your cart based on instructions you give it. I can’t imagine that going over well. 

    29. troll__away on

      And there it is. When AI hallucinates, and it will hallucinate, who pays for it? Not the company deploying the AI, not the company that trained the model, it’s you.

      This is why AI cannot be deployed in any high liability situation. We haven’t settled on who will actually be liable when the LLM fails. Once we do decide who is liable, we’ll see an immediate tightening of the industry because the profits, if any, won’t be worth the liability risk. This is why AI/LLMs can’t succeed in broad human replacement.

    30. freexanarchy on

      To me, this implies they aren’t training the AI they’re deploying adequately enough. You will be the trainers, just like with your “free” chat gpt account. And before the training is better, they want to not have any liability. Reminds me of that simpsons episode where Bart flails his arms wildly in a circle while moving slowly towards Lisa and declares “I’m going to move my arms like this, and if you get in the way, it’s not my fault!” Or something to that effect.

    31. jimmytoan on

      Do you think retailers deploying AI agents that can initiate purchases should be required to implement a mandatory confirmation step before any order is placed, or is that entirely the user’s responsibility to configure?

    32. WeAreGesalt on

      I’m doing everything I can to put them out of buisness, not intentionally I just don’t shop there

    36. drrtydan on

      if my Target experience doesn’t allow me to shut off AI to do it, then i guess i don’t need a Target experience.

    37. jsamuraij on

      What the fuck is an AI shopping assistant and why on earth would I need one at Target

    39. klingma on

      Reminds when a guy got an AI bot to authorize a massive discount on a car and the dealership said they wouldn’t honor it…I realize that’s not the exact same here, but it goes both ways. If companies are admitting AI can make mistakes and consumers are responsible when it hurts them then companies must be responsible when it hurts them as well. 

    41. XNY on

      *The pitch is convenience: less browsing, fewer clicks, and an easier way to fill a cart*

      What a dumb statement

    44. StuffLeoLikes on

      Bad business practices aside, it’s your own fault if you willingly buy into this AI bullshit tbh

    46. captainstormy on

      Honestly I feel like if someone uses AI to shop for them it pretty much is their own fault.