When someone enters a search query, they’ll be shown a variety of AI-generated product images below their autocomplete suggestions (see above image).

For instance, if you search for a blue gingham dress, you might see a few dress styles — short or long sleeves, varying lengths, and other differences — appear as visual options. The idea is that clicking one would direct you to search results that better match that style, powered by Amazon’s visual search capabilities.

In reality, it’s somewhat bananas for a retailer to make up fake products as a way of guiding users to search results.

For starters, it’s potentially misleading — customers who don’t read carefully may think they’re being directed to a page where they could find that exact dress, then be disappointed when it isn’t available. And there’s the fairly obvious question of why you’d make up product images when you have a website full of real photographs of real products — which is presumably what an online shopper actually wants to see.