Amazon and Perplexity argued before a U.S. appeals court on Thursday over whether a 1986 computer fraud law makes Perplexity liable for its AI shopping agent logging into Amazon accounts without permission, according to Reuters. Amazon sued Perplexity in November, accusing its Comet browser and AI agent of secretly logging into customer accounts to place orders, and a California judge blocked the tool in March after finding strong evidence it accessed Amazon’s systems unlawfully. At the 9th Circuit, the judges questioned whether the agent or the user did the accessing and whether an AI can form unlawful intent, with one noting the 1986 law was not written for AI, in a case seen as one of the first to test who is liable for agentic AI’s actions.
