Online shopping algorithms like Amazon's 'collude' with other sites to artificially inflate prices

Machine learning is becoming so smart that algorithms designed to set prices in online marketplaces are mirroring each others' behaviour to raise prices. Algorithms using self-learning AI are popular systems that have become adopted by Amazon to constantly learn and set the best prices in order to drive website profit. An experiment by researchers in Bologna used algorithms similar to those manipulated by online shopping sites and found they were able to'collude' to artificially hike up prices. The researchers showed that this could happen entirely out of human control, as the independent AI systems were able to learn each others' behaviours. Machine learning is becoming so smart that online price setting algorithms are mirroring each others' behaviour to raise prices and with a goal to raise profits.