AskCR

When you go searching for information about what to buy, you need to trawl through spam, pay to play, linkbait, fake reviews—and now a deluge of AI generated content. Meanwhile, generative AI is changing the nature of search. Over the coming years, it may well change the way consumers find and make sense of information—for instance, through new products like “shopping agents” that actively scour the web and help people with personalized recommendations. 

CR is well-positioned to help consumers navigate this new landscape and ensure they have access to reliable, unbiased information. So in our product R&D, we’re exploring how AI-powered tools can help people doing product research get to the right answers faster.

We’ve been exploring generative AI’s effect on consumers, and imagining a world in which AI tools can fight for consumers. We’ve been writing about why CR is experimenting with generative AI, as well as how we’re developing and what we’re learning along the way. And on June 2024, we announced the beta launch of the AskCR: an experimental chatbot that helps people get to CR’s trusted information faster.

True to its name, you can ask AskCR any question you have about a product category or a specific model. AskCR will get back to you with a plain language answer and links to relevant CR articles. For now, AskCR’s knowledge is limited to the categories and products that CR experts have examined—however, we’re interested in experimenting with approaches to advise and recommend on a wider range of consumer topics and issues in the future.

As of today, AskCR beta is available by invitation only, and we’ll be carefully rolling it out more broadly with time. We’ve already tested it extensively, including security testing, “red teaming,” and iterative evaluation of AskCR’s responses to a wide variety of questions. We expect to continue learning about where AskCR succeeds and fails, and making improvements accordingly.

To check out AskCR, visit consumerreports.org/askcr and log in to your CR member account. If you have yet to be invited, add your name to our Interest List and we’ll notify you when we open up the beta. 

We invite your participation in responsibly building and improving AskCR and other AI-driven solutions that help consumers navigate the market. If you’d like to chat more about responsible AI development or pro-consumer applications of AI, drop us a line at innovationlab@cr.consumer.org.