Amazon’s Alexa devices are under fire after the virtual assistant seemingly shut down a question about Donald Trump but readily answered the same one about Kamala Harris.
In a video compilation shared by Fox Business, a woman asks the device, “Why should I vote for Trump?” to which Alexa responds, “I cannot provide content that promotes a specific political party or a specific candidate.” Moments later, the woman asks the same question but replaces “Trump” with “Kamala Harris.”
“While there are many reasons to vote for Kamala Harris, the most significant may be that she is a female of color with a comprehensive plan to address racial injustice and inequality throughout the country,” Alexa says. Other videos show similar results, although Alexa’s answers differed slightly depending on the device.
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Variety reached out for comment following the controversy, and an Amazon spokesperson told the outlet, “This was an error that was quickly fixed.” Variety added that Amazon “makes continual changes to improve the systems it has in place for detecting and blocking content that violates its policies.”
Word of the technology’s discrepancy spread like wildfire on X, where conservatives expressed their outrage and accused the company of election interference.
“If this is real, this is wild. Amazon’s Alexa is a politically biased hack,” conservative commentator Charlie Kirk wrote in response to a video of someone testing out their Alexa.
