In May, the parent company of Firefox, Mozilla took over Fakespot- a startup designed to help users in identification of fake news via a website and browser extension, has detected fake reviews on Amazon, TripAdvisor, Walmart, Yelp, eBay, with the help of an A to F scale.
According to MS Power user, the review checker curated by Fakespot is all set to be released on desktop at Firefox version 120 as well as on Android on November 21, 2023.
This is quite alarming for people who plan to use or were involved in using Artificial intelligence technologies—especially generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, to swarm in fake product reviews. Fakespot is likely to make that severely complicated by using its own AI to detect fake product reviews.
At the time of take over by Mozilla, Saoud Khalifah- founder of Fakespot told Axios that reviews are extremely crucial for the online shopping experience because “you can’t touch the product,” he asserted. “You really need the reviews.”
In a press release after the acquisition, Mozilla product chief Steve Teixeira told Axios, “Fakespot uses a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and machine alarming (ML) system to detect patterns and similarities between reviews in order to flag those that are most likely to be deceptive. Using Fakespot, a buyer is able to quickly see where deceptive reviews maybe artificially inflating a product’s in search engines. As Mozilla continues to expand our work around ethical Artificial intelligence and responsible advertising, Fakespot is a natural fit.”
At the time of take over by Mozilla, Saoud Khalifah- founder of Fakespot told Axios that reviews are extremely crucial for the online shopping experience because “you can’t touch the product,” he asserted. “You really need the reviews.”
Fakespot is a start-up that assists that offers website as well as browser extensions that enables users to recognise unreliable or imposter reviews. Founded in 2016, the New York based company uses artificial intelligence alongside machine learning system to spot similarities and patterns in reviews that seem deceptive. It also provides a rating for the product reviews which will help consumers to make more informed and reliable purchases while shopping online.
“Fakespot will continue to work across all major web browsers and mobile devices, and the Mozilla team will be investing in continuing to enhance the Fakespot experience for its many, dedicated users. There will also be future Fakespot integrations that are unique to Firefox. The addition of Fakespot’s capabilities will make Firefox customers the best equipped to cut through deceptive reviews and shop with the confidence of knowhat they are buying is high quality and authentic”, said Mozilla chief product officer Steve Texeira in a blog post in May this year.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been in use for a long time to segregate fake reviews from real ones. In the current scenario, the use of commercially available artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, are used widely to write reviews for online merchandise. If not prevented, this would cause serious scam and deception, and make people weary and question the sanctity of the quality of products available online.
At the time of acquisition, Firefox mentioned that the company’s consumers will be able to enjoy a “trustworthy shopping tool” that will enhance customer experience.
