Websites are closing their doors to AI agents
Amazon, airlines, and banks are blocking AI shopping and booking agents from Meta, OpenAI, xAI, and others.
Users of Meta’s Muse, xAI’s Grok, OpenAI’s Dots, and Instinct report that major websites now block agent tasks. Yelp allows only licensed agents, Delta blocks ticket booking, and JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab block account access over security concerns. Amazon previously sued Perplexity over agentic shopping; a lower-court order was overturned on appeal in August, and Amazon filed an amended complaint. Meta is partnering with retailers instead, while Cloudflare crawler blocks and anti-bot checks further limit agent access.
- Yelp, Delta, JPMorgan Chase, and Charles Schwab restrict or block AI agents.
- Amazon sued Perplexity; an appeals court later overturned a shopping ban.
- Meta partners with Walmart, Gap, Sephora, and Best Buy so Muse can shop.
- Cloudflare blocks crawlers that scrape for both search indexing and AI training.
- Anti-bot systems also stop agents even when sites have not banned them outright.
From the original article
4 min read at theverge.com
Autonomous agents are the hottest thing in AI. OpenAI, Meta, Google, Instinct, and others promise their agents can scour the internet on your behalf, doing anything from booking a dinner reservation and cleaning out your inbox to buying new shoes. But what happens when the rest of the internet won't play nice?
By Emma Roth · theverge.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.