This week: Amazon is blocking Meta’s new Muse AI assistant from shopping on Amazon.com, saying the agent doesn’t identify itself and violates the site’s conditions of use. We explain why the standoff is an early sign of a much bigger fight over whether AI agents can use websites and apps on people’s behalf, and why Amazon has so much riding on the answer.
For the definitive word on the issue, we ask Muse what it has to say for itself, and get an impressively sophisticated and evenhanded response.
We recorded this week’s show live at Daniel’s Broiler in downtown Seattle, in front of a room of startup founders and CEOs, at a dinner hosted and sponsored by Northern Trust.
Mike Fridgen, a longtime Seattle entrepreneur and Madrona venture partner now working on a stealth startup, joins us to talk about whether Seattle is still a good place to build a company. The conversation covers the region’s talent, its history and the debate over taxes including Seattle’s JumpStart payroll tax, which Mayor Katie Wilson’s new budget holds flat.
Then we take questions from the room. Ridge AI CEO Ellie Fields asks how business leaders can engage productively in building the region, Latch CEO Stefan Kalb asks why Seattle has less venture capital than the Bay Area and ACME Brains founder Mary Jesse asks how to get past polarization.
We close with a satellite-themed GeekWire Trivia Challenge and an unexpected announcement from Starfish Space co-founder Austin Link.
Related links
- Amazon blocks Meta’s Muse AI assistant in new standoff over agentic shopping
- Facing ‘seismic shifts’ in tech sector, Seattle mayor freezes JumpStart tax rates in new budget
- ‘The warning signs are flashing’: New regional partnership calls for cohesive Seattle-area tech strategy
- Data visualization all-stars unveil Ridge AI with $2.6M to fix the analytics problem for SaaS apps
- With NASA’s backing, Starfish Space is getting ready for the orbital debut of its flagship Otter spacecraft
With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop. Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.
