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Companies Using AI To Squeeze More From Your Wallet

Observant1
in Other Investing
"Mining vast troves of data, AI is setting prices for everything from airline tickets to groceries.
The tools are getting smarter as they learn our shopping habits.
They’re also getting personal, generating prices and offers that hinge partly on what the AI
thinks you’re worth as a customer and would pay."

"Consumers are in the dark about AI’s machinations.
Companies are loath to discuss details of their pricing algorithms.
Partly that’s for competitive reasons.
A consumer and regulatory backlash is also brewing over AI being used for unfair trade practices
and illegal forms of price discrimination."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/how-companies-are-using-ai-to-squeeze-more-from-your-wallet/ar-AA1Sv4VC

Comments

  • Sven
    edited December 20
    No window shopping for sure. AI will track your IP address to discourage price comparison. It felt strange as if someone is tracking my search as if some form of algorithm was used to gauge the supply and demand of their products. That algorithm later known as AI. Hotels play the same game.

    If you don’t bite, the firms would posted the items (and related items) as ad when you are browsing the internet. Basically, retailers want the consumers to spend and AI is easy to deploy. Very annoying sale tactics.
  • CrashCrash
    I wonder if using The Onion Router or an ordinary PRIVATE window while fare-shopping might still work to defeat the slimebags?
  • msf
    Personalized [variable] pricing isn’t new. We already pay different prices for many things—airline tickets, home insurance, groceries—based on our consumer data or ability to haggle in real life (in the case of a car, for instance).
    These days, anything that's automated is slapped with an "AI" label.

    Just yesterday I got into one of those "newfangled" (read: decades old) elevators where you press your destination floor button on the outside and an elevator comes that only opens on the desired floors. No buttons inside. And I'm thinking - another place where "AI" has replaced human beings - no more elevator operators. AI, yeah right.
    image

    As computers have gotten faster and memory dirt cheap they've been able to customize down to the individual buyer or individual trade level. That alone doesn't make it AI.
    The computing is powerful enough—thanks largely to Nvidia’s chips—that AI can blend our data with the dynamics of a marketplace, tailoring prices to individuals or groups more narrowly.
    New York is now at the forefront of regulatory efforts. Its new law, which took effect in November, requires companies to disclose to consumers if they’re using “algorithmic pricing,” allowing companies to charge “some consumers more than others depending on factors like their location, income, and previous shopping habits,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement.

    Yet variable pricing isn’t illegal, and how New York will enforce the statute isn’t clear.
    It's the data that matters. Problems arise when the data is used unfairly or illegally. Consider insurance rates based on credit ratings. Not fair and often not useful. Using location has the stench of redlining.

    Then there's downright illegal use of data. RealPage just reached a settlement with DOJ for "offering software that uses nonpublic, 'competitively sensitive' data shared among landlords to recommend how much to charge tenants". This use of insider info enabled landlords to "boost prices in apartment buildings [above market rates] in ways that could violate antitrust laws."

    https://www.propublica.org/article/doj-realpage-settlement-rental-price-fixing-case
  • Observant1
    edited December 20
    Crash said:

    I wonder if using The Onion Router or an ordinary PRIVATE window
    while fare-shopping might still work to defeat the slimebags?

    Using "The Onion Router" (i.e., Tor browser) should allow users to remain anonymous.
    Several Linux distributions — Tails, Whonix, Qubes, etc. — are designed with privacy in mind.
    I doubt that using Private browsing, by itself, would be an effective solution.
  • gman57
    It's inevitable, wall street has been at it for years getting their computers as close to wall street as possible. High frequency trading can depend on being microseconds closer to trading platforms. AI is a little scary, are we all going to be paying a different prices based on our past actions? Time to create a "miser" gmail account?
  • CrashCrash
    Observant1 said:

    Crash said:

    I wonder if using The Onion Router or an ordinary PRIVATE window
    while fare-shopping might still work to defeat the slimebags?

    Using "The Onion Router" (i.e., Tor browser) should allow users to remain anonymous.
    Several Linux distributions — Tails, Whonix, Qubes, etc. — are designed with privacy in mind.
    I doubt that using Private browsing, by itself, would be an effective solution.
    Good to know. Thanks.
  • howaya
    How about leaving your cell phone at home so AI cannot track your physical window browsing? Failing that, what about using disposable burner phones and cash? I am a bit technophobic and, as such, lack knowledge of ways to avoid AI tracking.
  • Observant1
    edited December 20
    "How about leaving your cell phone at home so AI cannot track your physical window browsing?"

    You could do that.
    Or you could run a privacy-first mobile OS like GrapheneOS.¹
    Or you could store your cell phone in a high-quality Faraday bag.²
    Note: Cell phone tracking was an issue long before AI became popular several years ago.


    ¹ https://grapheneos.org/
    ² https://mosequipment.com/blogs/blog/myths-vs-facts-debunking-common-misconceptions-about-faraday-bags
  • Observant1
    edited December 20
    Today's PBS NewsHour episode included a segment on “surveillance pricing.”

  • CrashCrash
    I hope they choke on it.
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