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研究称Google AI模式显示价格更高
一项研究声称Google AI模式下的商品价格平均比传统搜索高21.6%，可能影响消费者决策，但研究细节未提供。
AI推荐理由 研究称Google AI模式显示价格更高，涉及AI搜索的商业影响，但来源为Futurism，需谨慎对待。
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谷歌 / Futurism
上个月，谷歌更新了其主页，用各种人工智能功能取代了标志性的“搜索”按钮。
此举是这家科技巨头屈服于人工智能吸引力的最新迹象，而人工智能仍然存在严重缺陷——并伴随着大量错误信息。
甚至在线购物体验也开始发生巨大变化，消费者可能正在为此付出代价。根据电商SEO公司Productrise最近的一项实验，同样的产品在谷歌AI模式下的平均价格比传统搜索高出21.6%。
这是一个棘手的话题，因为立法者正在考虑是否进行干预，而公司越来越多地使用人工智能工具分析消费者的个人数据，以实时定制价格标签，这种有争议的做法被称为“监控定价”。虽然Productrise的实验不一定证明谷歌利用其拥有的用户数据财富进行价格歧视，但这种差异引发了关于AI模式如何得出其推荐——以及为什么价格似乎与传统搜索不同——的大量问题。
“虽然我们尚未验证本报告中声明的准确性，但谷歌搜索上的所有购物结果，包括AI模式和搜索结果页面，都由同一数据源驱动：我们的购物图谱，”谷歌告诉我们。“购物者可以轻松点击产品列表，比较该产品在不同零售商处的价格，并选择最适合他们的选项。”
除了显示相同产品的更高价格外，该研究还发现，AI模式中的列表对用户更可见，其位置“比传统搜索列表高49%”。两种模式下，相同产品的主要供应商在不到50%的情况下有所不同，这表明AI模式优先考虑一组截然不同——且不太注重预算——的卖家。
“这是一项引人入胜的研究，揭示了谷歌购物图谱以及经典搜索和AI模式在免费列表展示位置上的不一致性，”独立SEO顾问Brodie Clark在Productrise分享的一份声明中表示。
然而，消费者是否真的愿意支付这些更高的价格则是另一回事。研究发现，许多人会点击跳过AI功能，以找到实际最优惠的价格。
“虽然AI模式中的网格结果可能显示更高的价格（使顶层比较不太准确），但我们倾向于看到的是，价格最低的零售商最终会获得点击，”Clark解释道。
他认为，当AI模式推荐购买什么时，给定产品的价格可能没有“像我们预期的那样被赋予那么多权重”。
当使用“金属坐浴盆附件”或“手动研磨机不锈钢”等提示搜索产品时，Productrise发现，AI模式中对传统谷歌搜索中列出的相同产品的推荐始终更贵。
此外，该公司分析的产品中，只有1.28%在“同一天的相同搜索”中同时出现在传统搜索和AI模式中，这表明推荐重叠的情况相对罕见。Productrise发现，当它们确实重叠时，实际卖家在49.6%的情况下有所不同。
尽管如此，更高的价格削弱了谷歌在四月新闻稿中所说的AI旨在“让购物更轻松”的说法。就像新闻业受到的伤害——谷歌通过其AI概览功能阻止用户点击链接——一样，广告商正在努力控制购物体验以及产品在AI模式中的展示方式。
“AI搜索本应消除在五个不同标签页之间比较价格的麻烦，但如果它默认只提供更昂贵的库存，那么它并没有为我们节省任何工作，”高级SEO策略师Katelyn Geary在声明中表示。
更多关于AI和谷歌：谷歌AI给出令人震惊的种族主义“建议”，关于与某些群体独处
查看原文（中文正文为 AI 翻译）
Google / Futurism
Last month, Google updated its home page to replace its iconic “Search” button with various AI features.
The move was the latest sign of the tech giant succumbing to the draw of AI that remains deeply flawed — and the staggering amount of misinformation that comes along with it.
Even the experience of shopping online is starting to look dramatically different, and consumers may be paying the price. According to a recent experiment by e-commerce SEO company Productrise, the same exact products are showing up as 21.6 percent more expensive on average in Google AI Mode compared to a traditional search.
It’s a thorny topic as lawmakers ponder whether to intervene as companies are increasingly using AI tools to analyze consumers’ personal data to tailor price tags in real time, a controversial practice called “surveillance pricing.” While Productrise’s experiment doesn’t necessarily prove that Google is discriminating on price by using the wealth of data it has on users, the discrepancy raises plenty of questions over how AI Mode arrives at its recommendations — and why prices appear to differ compared to regular search.
“While we haven’t verified the accuracy of the claims in this report, all shopping results on Google Search, including AI Mode and the search results page, are powered by the same data source: our Shopping Graph,” Google told us. “Shoppers can easily click into a product listing to compare prices for that product across retailers and choose the best option for them.”
Beyond showing a higher price for the same exact product, the study also found that AI Mode listings are far more visible to users, sitting “49 percent higher than traditional search listings.” The primary vendor for the same exact product differed just under 50 percent of the time between the two modes, suggesting AI Mode is prioritizing a strikingly different — and less budget-oriented — group of sellers.
“This is a fascinating study that reveals more about Google’s Shopping Graph and the inconsistencies between classic search and AI Mode for free listing placements,” said independent SEO consultant Brodie Clark in a statement shared by Productrise.
However, whether consumers are actually willing to pay those higher prices is a different matter. Many, the research found, are clicking past the AI feature to find the actual best value.
“While the higher price might be displayed within the grid result in AI Mode (making the top-level comparison less accurate), what we tend to see is that the retailer with the lowest price gets the click in the end,” Clark explained.
The findings suggest a given product’s price may not be given “as much weighting as we would have expected,” he argued, when AI Mode is recommending what to buy.
When searching for products using prompts like “metal bidet attachment” or “manual grinder stainless steel,” Productrise found that recommendations inside AI Mode for the same product listed in traditional Google searches were consistently more expensive.
In addition, only 1.28 percent of products the company analyzed appeared in both traditional search and AI mode “for the same search on the same day,” indicating that it’s relatively rare for recommendations to overlap. And when they did overlap, the actual seller differed 49.6 percent of the time, Productrise found.
Nonetheless, the higher prices undermine claims that AI is meant to “make shopping easier,” as Google put in an April press release. Much like the journalism injury, which is suffering from Google discouraging users from clicking on links with its AI Overview feature, advertisers are struggling to control the shopping experience and how products are being featured inside AI Mode.
“AI search was supposed to eliminate the friction of comparing prices across five different tabs, but if it only serves pricier inventory by default, it hasn’t saved us any work,” said senior SEO strategist Katelyn Geary in the statement.
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