AI Emerges to Catch 'Fake Reviews'

Introducing AI Service to Detect Fake Reviews for a Healthy Commerce Ecosystem

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] As the COVID-19 pandemic prolongs and contactless consumption expands, artificial intelligence (AI) services that catch 'hidden advertisements', 'fake reviews', and the like are gaining attention. Since purchase reviews greatly influence whether consumers decide to buy products, cases of abuse have increased, naturally leading to the emergence of systems that filter out harmful reviews to maintain a healthy commerce ecosystem.

A representative example is the video platform 'VReview,' which uses AI chatbot technology to allow only actual product buyers to write reviews. This service, launched by the startup Indent Corporation, collects all video reviews exclusively from consumers who have purchased the products, reducing the risk of exposure to 'hidden advertisements' or fake reviews. The usage is also simple. When a consumer buys a product from a shopping mall that has implemented the VReview widget, the AI chatbot initiates a chat with the customer to receive a video review. The collected video reviews are automatically posted on the shopping mall to help other consumers make purchase decisions, and the entire upload process is completed within the VReview chatbot without needing to move to a separate site. Currently, VReview has been introduced in over 1,600 online shopping malls, and as of the end of last month, the number of users who have experienced the VReview AI chatbot surpassed 5 million.

The food delivery application (app) industry also struggles with fake reviews. As the delivery market within the dining industry grows, the importance of food order reviews increases. In response, Delivery Hero Korea, which operates the delivery apps 'Yogiyo' and 'Baedaltong,' developed a system that filters fake reviews using AI. The technology introduced by Delivery Hero Korea is an AI process for automatic classification of photo reviews. This technology was completed through an in-house research project and applies 'deep learning' technology that learns from vast amounts of data to make judgments. This system is a highly advanced model with a data recognition level so refined that it can detect fake photo reviews with an accuracy of 96%, going beyond simple object recognition. This enables the provision of only actual information that consumers can refer to, excluding fake photo reviews at the time of ordering.

Online shopping malls have also started their own efforts to detect fake reviews using AI technology. eBay Korea, which operates Gmarket and Auction, has introduced a system that filters reviews consisting of images unrelated to the product or text with unclear meaning. Content filled with various special characters and unintelligible text is deleted by AI before being exposed to other customers. Additionally, illegal content causing obscenity, defamation, copyright infringement, and the like is also blocked.