Phia, the AI-powered shopping app co-founded by Phoebe Gates, is facing allegations that it claimed affiliate sales it did not actually earn, according to Engadget.
Engadget reports that the app allegedly generated fake clicks in order to take credit for purchases and collect the associated affiliate commissions. Affiliate programs typically pay a cut of a sale to whoever referred the shopper to a retailer, so inflating or fabricating those referrals could mean claiming payments for sales the app did not genuinely drive.
Phia was founded by Gates, who is the daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, alongside co-founder Sophia Kianni, per Engadget.
The source item does not detail who first raised the allegations, the scale of any disputed sales, or how the founders have responded. Those specifics are not established in the reporting available here, and the claims remain allegations rather than proven findings.
Why it matters: affiliate marketing quietly underpins much of online shopping, and accusations that a high-profile, celebrity-backed AI app may have gamed those payouts raise broader questions about trust and transparency in how shopping tools make their money.