[theptip]

Yeah, it’s a very sensible feature to add. Obviously lots of users are making “please recommend a <product>” queries, it’s a usecase where deep research really shines.

So if your users are spending a lot of time on a tasks, why not make it more delightful?

Of course, you need to make sure you don’t allow accidental purchases, that would be the way you destroy trust. But assuming a clear intent to purchase is established, then I think this will be well-received.

[matsemann]

But it could also destroy their brand. Right now I think most people somewhat "trust" LLM recommendations (just glossing over the hallucinations). But more and more results in the future will either be sponsored products, or spam bots having poisoned the data set by having spammed reddit and the likes.

So I'm afraid of a steep enshittification of this use.

[thwarted]

I got spam sales email yesterday touting that exact thing. Paying for product placement in conversations with chatbots, claiming it's "not an ad".

[stephen_g]

Really though, I think that kind of grift was inevitable given the incredible amount of capital poured into the LLM craze… The more money went in, the faster it was going to happen - how else could they generate a return on that much money?

[theptip]

Honestly - consumers couldn’t care less, if the product experience lets them get things done. And especially if there is a free version. Google, Amazon, etc are some of the most popular brands in history, while they were doing much more egregious ad tracking.

I think this is a blind spot for this community, personally. Like, it’s right to care about this stuff, but I think we are wrong to think other people care too.