Mozilla buys Fakespot, a startup that identifies fake reviews, to bring shopping tools to Firefox
Mozilla introduced today that it has acquired Fakespot, a startup that offers a internet site and browser extension that can help people establish faux or unreliable critiques. The monetary phrases of the offer ended up not disclosed. Fakespot’s offerings can be made use of to spot bogus assessments listed on numerous on the net marketplaces together with Amazon, Yelp, TripAdvisor and much more.
Established in 2016, New York-dependent Fakespot uses an AI and equipment understanding technique to detect patterns and similarities amongst critiques in buy to flag these that are most possible to be misleading. Fakespot provides a rating or grade for the product’s opinions in get to aid consumers make a lot more informed conclusions when making a order. The intention powering the company’s website and browser extension is to give people the capacity to immediately see in which deceptive opinions could be artificially inflating a product’s position in look for engines.
“Fakespot will go on to function throughout all main world wide web browsers and cell products, and the Mozilla crew will be investing in continuing to improve the Fakespot working experience for its several, dedicated customers,” said Mozilla Chief Products Officer Steve Teixeira in a weblog publish. “There will also be long run Fakespot integrations that are exceptional to Firefox. The addition of Fakespot’s capabilities will make Firefox shoppers the very best outfitted to slash by misleading reviews and store with the self confidence of realizing what they are obtaining is large-excellent and reliable.”
Mozilla claims that with Fakespot, Firefox end users will have access to a trusted procuring instrument that will support strengthen the e-commerce experience. The company claims it will introduce Fakespot features to Firefox in excess of time.
Even though AI and equipment finding out have lengthy been employed to detect phony assessments, the endeavor is probable only to get more difficult with the introduction of increased and commercially readily available AI equipment. For instance, recent experiences indicate that persons are utilizing AI chatbots, this kind of as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, to produce assessments for products on Amazon. These assessments that are reportedly prepared by ChatGPT could be the future iteration of fraud and fake opinions.
Today’s announcement comes a handful of months right after Mozilla introduced an AI-focused startup named Mozilla.ai. The freshly solid company’s mission is not to develop just any AI — its mission is to develop AI that’s open supply and “trustworthy,” in accordance to Mark Surman, the executive president of Mozilla and the head of Mozilla.ai.