Musk Floats Amazon Rival After Grok Bot Users Report Order Blocks

Elon Musk floated an Amazon competitor after users said Amazon was blocking Grok Bot orders, bringing online retailers’ limits on outside AI agents into focus.

At 8:52 a.m. ET (12:52 UTC) Thursday, Oct. 15, Musk responded to a user urging him to launch an X Shop by suggesting they start an Amazon rival. He gave no product details or launch plan.

Nic Cruz Patane said his Grok Bot could no longer order from Amazon and shared a screenshot showing a warning that repeated access by an unauthorized AI agent violated the retailer’s terms.

Musk suggested asking Grok Bot to find other sellers and said his bot had bought LEGO directly from LEGO’s website. The exchange follows Musk’s earlier credit-card photo proposal for online shopping.

Amazon also cut off shopping access for Meta’s Muse agent in September, citing concerns that it did not identify itself to merchants and could store users’ credentials. Amazon’s Buy for Me shopping feature identifies itself to merchants.