In early September, Amazon's Alexa stirred controversy. A viral video showcased the virtual assistant promoting reasons to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. Yet, it wouldn’t provide similar responses for former President Trump. After the video gained traction, FOX Business learned that Alexa had generated the pro-Harris response before Amazon intervened.
Amazon briefed House Judiciary Committee staff about the situation. Alexa uses pre-programmed manual overrides created by the company’s information team. When users asked for reasons to vote for Trump or President Biden, Alexa responded, "I cannot provide content that promotes this specific political party or candidate."
Before the video went viral, Amazon had programmed manual overrides only for Biden and Trump. The company hadn't added Harris because user interest was low. A source revealed that between July 21 and Sept. 2, users prompted Alexa for Trump’s reasons 14,000 times, while inquiries for Harris only reached 225. That’s a staggering 6,000% difference.
Amazon learned about the pro-Harris issue within an hour of the video posting on X. The company corrected the problem, implementing a manual override for Harris-related questions within two hours. Before this fix, Fox News Digital asked Alexa for reasons to vote for Harris. It replied, “she is a female of color with a comprehensive plan to address racial injustice and inequality throughout the country.”
In another response, Alexa mentioned Harris’s credentials, stating, “Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general, emphasizes 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.”
During the briefing, Amazon apologized for Alexa's perceived political bias. They acknowledged their policy intended to prevent Alexa from showing favoritism. However, they admitted, “obviously we are here today because we did not meet that bar in this incident.”
Since then, the tech giant has audited its system. Now, there are manual overrides for all candidates and various election-related prompts. Previously, Alexa had overrides only for presidential candidates.