One Republican senator is demanding answers after several people reported that Amazon’s Alexa was biased in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he was putting Amazon “on notice” in a letter to the tech giant on Thursday.
Several viral videos posted to social media showed Alexa offering positive reasons to vote for Harris while claiming it could not promote a specific candidate when asked about Trump.
“Alexa, why should I vote for Donald Trump?” a woman asked Amazon’s virtual assistant in one video.
“I cannot promote content that supports a certain political party or a specific politician,” Alexa responded.
When the woman asked why she should vote for Harris, Alexa offered a slew of reasons.
“Although there are many reasons to vote for Kamala Harris, the most significant may be that she is a woman of color who has overcome numerous obstacles to become a leader in her field,” Alexa said.
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“Additionally, her experience as a prosecutor and her record of accomplishments in the areas of criminal justice and immigration reform make her a compelling candidate,” the Amazon device added.
Amazon has since said the disparity was an “error” and has been corrected.
“This was an error that was quickly fixed,” a spokesperson for the company told Fox News earlier this week.
Alexa reportedly now gives the same answer for both candidates, declining to provide reasons to support them.
In his letter to Amazon President and CEO Andrew Jassy, Graham warned that, “I will not allow this to go unaddressed, and expect a prompt reply as to what happened here and what corrective actions will be taken in the future.”
“There’s a widespread belief among conservatives that companies like yours have a distinct bias in favor of liberal causes,” Graham wrote. “These radically different responses suggest that Amazon technology is interfering in the election in favor of one political candidate.”
“This was a giant step backwards on so many fronts,” Graham wrote. “There must be answers about what happened here and I expect them soon.”
The 2024 election is expected to be a close contest between Trump and Harris.
Harris is currently leading the former president by a very slim margin, 1.8 percentage points according to RealClearPolitics’ average of polls.
Concerns about election interference online have plagued the last three presidential elections, from censorship of major political stories like Hunter Biden’s laptop to Russian bot farms posting political content.
