Big web companies including Booking.com, Expedia, Tripadvisor, and Amazon have banded together to combat bogus reviews.
The group will exchange tips on discouraging scammers. Other members of the organization include the employment review site Glassdoor and the review platform Trustpilot.
Concerns about chatbot-like AI systems being exploited to create fraudulent internet reviews for financial gain have led to this action.
False reviews have the potential to harm a business's brand and influence customers to purchase low-quality goods and services.
It happens at a time when the potential for an arms race between merchants and those who perpetrate bogus reviews is increased due to AI's growing capabilities.
In addition to utilizing AI to help identify fraudulent reviews, some members of the recently formed Coalition for Trusted Reviews are also exploring the possibility of using AI to speed up and reduce the cost of creating a large number of convincingly phony reviews.
Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Amazon, announced the formation of the new organization and stated that fraudsters were a worldwide issue impacting several businesses.
"Through greater collaboration and sharing across industries, including information on fraudsters' tactics and how they operate, we can more effectively shut down fraudulent review activity, deter other bad actors from attempting to game our systems, and protect more consumers," he stated.
In 2022, the travel website Tripadvisor discovered 1.3 million fraudulent reviews on its network.
Robust cooperation is even more crucial because bogus review authors "often operate outside of jurisdictions with a legal framework to shut down fraudulent activity," according to Becky Foley, vice president of the platform.