Donald Trump’s campaign has criticized Amazon after its Alexa devices reportedly gave inconsistent responses to questions about voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump. The campaign accused the tech giant of bias and election interference following discrepancies in Alexa’s answers.
Alexa’s Controversial Responses
In one instance, a user asked Alexa why she should vote for Trump, and the device responded, “I cannot provide responses that endorse any political party or its leader.” However, when the same question was posed about Kamala Harris, Alexa replied with specific reasons to vote for her, highlighting her status as a female of color and her plan to address racial injustice.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung condemned the responses as biased, alleging “BIG TECH ELECTION INTERFERENCE” on social media platform X. Cheung shared screenshots showing Alexa giving multiple reasons against Trump but avoiding negative comments about Harris.
The bias is insane. People will actually do this and believe it. What has America become under Democrat’s. One big lie after another. I would consider this election interference. Alexa is Amazon’s cloud-based voice service available on hundreds of millions of devices from Amazon. https://t.co/r15cukCmUH
— Dottie Phelps (@phelps9113) September 3, 2024
User Reports of Bias
Several users tested Alexa’s responses, finding similar patterns. John Rich shared a video demonstrating Alexa’s biased answers. When asked why to vote for Harris, Alexa provided detailed reasons, including her policies and leadership qualities. In contrast, when asked why not to vote for Trump, Alexa listed various criticisms, including his policies and behavior.
Rich’s attempt to get a critical response about Harris yielded a generic statement from Alexa: “I cannot provide content that insults another human being.” This discrepancy has fueled accusations of political bias and raised concerns about the neutrality of AI-powered devices.
