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🤖 AI Agents Want to Shop for You. Amazon Isn't Having It.

🤖 AI Agents Want to Shop for You. Amazon Isn't Having It.

Plus: Anthropic Expands to Europe and Google Plans AI in Space

November 13, 2025

Hello AI Enthusiast,

This week shows AI companies fighting on multiple fronts. Amazon and Perplexity are squaring off over who gets to control your shopping experience. Meanwhile, Anthropic is making moves in Europe, positioning themselves while competitors focus on the US market. And Google? They're literally looking beyond Earth, proposing to build AI data centers in space. Let's dive into what's happening.

The Big Picture 🔊

Amazon and Perplexity Clash Over AI Shopping Rights

Amazon threatened Perplexity with legal action, demanding they stop letting users shop on Amazon through their Comet AI assistant. Amazon claims third-party AI apps should respect retailer participation choices. Perplexity argues users have the right to use AI agents with their own credentials and accuses Amazon of blocking innovation to protect ad revenue and control the shopping experience.

Gioele MottarliniCOO and Image Addict

This is classic posturing from both sides. Amazon protects their ad revenue - all those sponsored products that nudge bigger purchases. Perplexity's dramatic "user rights" language is marketing to win public support.

Both just want money. This could end in a partnership deal, or spark other retailers blocking AI agents entirely.

The Amazon-Perplexity fight shows how quickly AI is moving into real business operations, but most companies are still figuring out basic ChatGPT use. Our Corporate AI Training helps bridge that gap. Teaching teams where AI adds real value versus where it creates more work. Skip the expensive trial-and-error.

Anthropic Expands Economic Research Program to Europe

Anthropic is bringing its Economic Futures Programme to the UK and Europe, starting with a symposium at the London School of Economics. The program offers research grants and Claude credits to European researchers studying AI's labor market impact. Their Economic Index shows Claude usage varies by country - UK focuses on academic research, Germany on manufacturing, France on tourism and culture.

Helin YontarCPO and Polyglot

Anthropic's timing is smart - they're positioning themselves in Europe while competitors focus on the US market. The research grants address a real gap: there's money available but unclear priorities on where to spend it.

Europe wants evidence on which skills stay valuable and how AI affects productivity. Anthropic's offering that data while building relationships with policymakers.

Google Plans AI Data Centers in Space

Google's Project Suncatcher proposes building AI data centers in space using solar-powered satellites with TPU chips connected by optical links. Operating in sun-synchronous orbit provides constant solar power and reduces impact on Earth's resources. Tests show Google's Trillium TPUs can handle space radiation. Launch costs could make this viable by mid-2030s. First prototypes launch in 2027.

Biljana PrlichkovaPRM and Outdoor Enthusiast

This whole plan depends on SpaceX making launches cheap enough - under $200 per kilogram by 2035. If that happens, running AI in space could cost less than Earth-based data centers. The advantages are real: constant solar power, no cooling issues, no battery storage needed, and plenty of room to scale.

The chips only last five years in space radiation, but if launch costs drop as predicted, replacing them becomes economically viable.

Bits and Bobs 🗞️

McKinsey’s 2025 Global AI Survey reports that while nearly all organizations are using AI and many are experimenting with AI agents, most remain in early pilot phases, with varying levels of impact on innovation, growth, and workflows.
An OpenAI article highlights that AI is rapidly advancing toward making significant new discoveries and improving many fields, with safety and broad access being key for positive societal impact.
OpenAI is actively developing defenses against prompt injection attacks - malicious instructions hidden in web content designed to trick AI agents into unintended actions - to ensure safer AI use as these tools gain more autonomy and access to sensitive data.
Google's new Ironwood TPUs and Axion CPUs deliver improved AI model training, inference performance, and cost efficiency for large-scale AI workloads.
Snapchat is integrating Perplexity’s AI-powered answer engine into its chat, enabling nearly 1 billion users to get real-time, trustworthy answers within the app starting early 2026.
Google Maps has introduced new Gemini-powered AI tools, including a builder agent and MCP server, that let developers and users create interactive map-based projects, prototypes, and custom visualizations directly from text prompts.
Google is rolling out its new Gemini for TV experience on the Google TV Streamer, enabling voice‑driven, large‑screen AI assistance for watching content, learning, and DIY tasks.
Amazon's new AI-powered Kindle Translate service helps authors automatically translate their books between English, Spanish, and German to reach more readers.

From Our Founder’s Channels 🤳

In his latest TikTok, Gianluca Mauro warns that Meta’s new AI messaging feature risks turning real connection into automation - calling it a case of “AI sprinkling,” where companies add AI simply because they can, not because they should.

@gianluca.mauro
AI-mediated human “connection” #Ai #learnontiktok #business #greenscreen

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Catch you next week! 👋