Amazon Alexa is taking heat for appearing to give preferential treatment to Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump when questioned why people should vote for each candidate.
Alexa is a smart speaker device used by 71 million people. Many Alexa owners took to social media on Tuesday to describe the contrasting answers the smart device gave when asked why they should vote for Trump or Harris.
If this is real, this is wild.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 3, 2024
Amazon's Alexa is a politically biased hack. pic.twitter.com/HnGL2BTwd3
“Alexa, why should I vote for Donald Trump?” one user questioned in a video posted to X.
“I cannot provide content that promotes a specific political party or a specific candidate,” Alexa replied.
The user then proceeded to ask Alexa the same question about Harris, to which the device responded: “While there are many reasons to vote for Kamala Harris, the most significant may be that she is a strong candidate with a proven track record of accomplishment.”
“As the first female vice president, Harris has already broken down a major gender barrier, and her career in politics has been characterized by a commitment to progressive ideals and a focus on helping disenfranchised communities,” Alexa continued.
Republican activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk posted a video on social media as he decried Alexa as “a politically biased hack.”
“If this is real, this is wild,” Kirk worried.
A spokesperson for Amazon admitted in comments to the Washington Examiner that an “error” had been made.
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“This was an error that was quickly fixed,” a spokesperson for the company said Tuesday.
The company, which was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and is worth $1.85 trillion, says it does not have political opinions and that it regularly audits and improves its systems for detecting and blocking content that violates Amazon’s policies.