Answered from #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens · This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von · 2026-11-03
Lindsay Owens warned that AI shopping agents could become highly effective upsellers. She cited a study of 325,000 experiments across 13 AI models that found assistants recommending pricier flights and health insurance to wealthier user profiles, even when told to find the cheapest option. She noted Meta has said its Muse agent will take a small fee from transactions, and argued that an agent which serves advertisers or merchants does not really work for the user.
“we could be unleashing what I view as the most sophisticated snake oil salesman the world has ever known.” Lindsay Owens · at 1:05:06 — open in the transcript →
Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von (2026-11-03). Read the whole episode summary →