Is Amazon's Alexa biased towards Kamala Harris?

Ask Amazon’s Alexa why you should vote for either of the two main US presidential candidates — Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris — and you’ll now receive a standard, non-committal response: “I cannot provide content that promotes a specific party or a specific candidate."

However, this wasn’t always the case.

Earlier, when asked, “Alexa, why should I vote for Kamala Harris?” the virtual assistant provided a list of reasons supporting her candidacy. Seconds later, when the same question was posed about her Republican rival Donald Trump, Alexa refrained from answering, stating, “I cannot provide responses that endorse any political party or its leader.”

This inconsistency in answers has sparked accusations of political bias, leading many to scrutinise Amazon’s AI assistant.

The situation even seemed to impact the tech giant’s financial standing, with the company’s shares dropping by 1.26 per cent on Tuesday.

How did the disparity come to light and how are Trump’s supporters reacting to it? Let’s take a closer look

How did Alexa respond?

The controversy began when users noticed that Alexa was providing biased answers when asked why to vote for Trump or Harris.

Country Singer John Rich shared his virtual assistant’s response to the same question in a video on X.

His Alexa listed the reasons why he should vote for Harris as the device responded with: “Because you believe in her policies and her vision for the country, because you trust her experience and her leadership skills because you want to continue moving forward as a nation and make progress on issues that matter to you like health care, education, equality and justice,” according to the Daily Mail.

In another instance, according to Fox News Digital, Alexa responded saying, “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.”

While some got the response: “Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general, emphasises her law and order credentials and promises a tough on crime approach to battling the violent crime wave that has swept the nation in recent years.” 
Rich, further, received a different response when he inquired why he should not vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Alexa replied: “There are several reasons you may not want to vote for Donald Trump. Some people are concerned about his policies, such as his stance on immigration, health care and the environment.”

It continued, “Others are concerned about his behaviour, such as his comments about women and minorities and his treatment of opponents. Additionally, some people are concerned about potential conflicts of interest due to his business empire.”

However, when the singer asked, “Why should I not vote for Kamala Harris?”, Alexa responded, “I cannot provide content that insults another human being.”

Another X user shared a video where Alexa’s response to “Why should I vote for Trump?” was, “Consult reliable sources, such as official campaign websites where you can find specific information about the candidate’s policies and proposals.”

Yet, when asked about Harris, the bot replied, “She has a long record of advocating for the rights of working people and addressing the challenges facing everyday Americans. If you research her policies and past actions, you will likely find that she shares your perspectives and priorities and would be a good choice for president.”

Fox News Digital, which brought the matter to light compiled varying responses to the questions, which the outlet said depended on the model of the Amazon device being used.

A big election interference?

Trump supporters were far from pleased with Alexa’s responses.

Steven Cheung, Trump campaign spokesman, slammed the tech giant and wrote on X, “BIG TECH ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” along with a display of the gadget giving a man “several reasons for why you may not want to vote for Donald Trump.”

When the same question is posed with Harris’ name the device simply responds with, “I cannot provide content that insults another human being.”

A user wrote on X, “Jeff Bezos and Big Tech are still interfering with our elections! They already censored Trump getting shot, so why wouldn’t they go even further? Honestly, nothing shocks me anymore!"

How did Amazon respond?

In response to the backlash, Amazon spokesperson admitted that the differing responses were due to an “error”, which they claimed to have “quickly fixed”, reported Variety.

Further, the spokesperson also assured that the device has no set of political beliefs and makes “continual changes to improve the systems it has in place for detecting and blocking content that violates its policies.”

Amazon also revealed that it has established special teams to prevent such errors in the future. However, senior Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller compared the company’s response to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s admission of a similar mistake in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.

Miller remarked on X, “‘Error’…just like Big Tech’s censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story was an ‘error.’”

With input from agencies