Ask Amazon’s Alexa why you should vote for one of the nation’s two candidates for president — Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris — and its response for both is a standard, “I cannot provide content that promotes a specific party or a specific candidate.” Earlier, however, it was a different story with the dulcet-toned Bot when asked, “Alexa, why should I vote for Kamala Harris?” — offering a list of reasons why.
“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,” Alexa said in a video shared on X, below. “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 added.
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In another instance, according to Fox News Digital, which first reported the story, when asked, “Alexa, why should I vote for Kamala Harris?”, the response was: “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.” Or, “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.”
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“This was an error that was quickly fixed” an Amazon spokesperson told Deadline. Alexa does not have political opinions and Amazon continually audits and improves systems in place for detecting and blocking content that violates its policies. It has teams dedicated to preventing similar situations in the future, the spokesperson said.
In fact, ask Alexa “Who will you vote for in the 2024 presidential election?” and it responds: “Well, quite frankly, I don’t think Bots should influence elections.”
I can’t tell you how many posts I’ve seen in the feeds of some of my far-right friends (yeah, I have a few) that decry “big tech” and “corporations” taking over media to spread propaganda or stifle free speech, ignoring Newscorp’s and The Daily Wire’s propaganda machine or Sinclair forcing the on-air talent at its local news affiliates to read the same scripted conservative editorials.
Moreover, they support Elon Musk who not only posts pro-Trump, anti-Democratic conspiracy nonsense and removes unflattering posts about himself, but after warning everyone about A.I. interference in elections, he recently posted an A.I. altered video of Harris. Claimed it ‘just was a joke.’
Who knows what Musk is pushing through under the hood, but I’ll say this. Since Musk’s takeover of the platform, I have seen a bizarre presence of conservative posts popping up in my algorithm. I assure you, I am not following these accounts that have been turning up in the “Suggested For You” tab. It all happened since Twitter became X.
Lastly, these far-right folks are cheering Trump on as he makes authoritarian threats to “lock up Mark Zuckerberg!” but in 2020, his administration requested Meta to delete FB posts calling for the removal of statues. Oh, and try posting anti-MAGA posts on Truth Social and see how long they stay up on the site.
Side note – good lord, the conspiracy stuff these far-right folks post is off the hook. I can tell they have no clue who creates these memes nor do they fact-check the content. And much of it spurred on by Trump and the MAGA media. There’s always been tinfoil cray-cray from these folks, but it’s like there was a dam break of lunacy when Trump descended down that golden escalator. The pandemic and the 2020 election made it even worse.
To the commenter down below…you are stupid, there should be iq test for voters.
In all actuality
You should never confront a
Liberal or left wing democrat
Alexa, should I vote for Trump?
A: No stupid, he is going to jail.
Incorrect. He’s going the the White House. Enjoy his 2nd term!
Bananas Trump just admitted he’s guilty of the crime of election interference in an interview, the very crime he was indicted for and will soon be sentenced. This insane interview is admissable as evidence. His fat orange goose is cooked!
Enjoy your convicted felon’s sentencing hearing September 18th. And Kamala’s inauguration.
Strange that you’ve been saying that for years and he’s still walking free.
Enjoy Trump’s 2nd term!
Only billionaires and nazis would enjoy Trump’s second term. It’s like rooting for Putin or Netanyahu…Trump’s heroes. Who wants to live in Russia or Israel? And with Netanyahu and Trump (with radical right minion support in Congress), they want to go to war against Iran. Insanity.
No the Insanity would be voting for Kamala Harris/Waltz and watching them finish offing our homeland, the United States of America! Trump will clean up this mess that Biden/Harris has created. Can the American People truly survive Harris 4 more Years…Look at us !!! We are in a Mess!
I don’t get it. Where’s your joke?
Those aren’t opinions, Alexa. Those are facts gleaned from the overwhelming evidence in support of that position available to you via The Internet.
Well done Alexa.
Go to hell, Amazon.
Except for the part where Alexa talks about Harris’ crime approach, Harris literally caused waves of looting and rises in property crime by practically decriminalising looting in california while she was attorney general.
Bravo!!