Senator Lindsey Graham is demanding answers after reports surfaced that Amazon’s Alexa demonstrated a bias favoring Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Graham sent a letter to Amazon on Thursday, putting the tech giant “on notice” after videos went viral showing Alexa providing reasons to vote for Harris while refusing to do the same for Donald Trump.
In one video, a user asks, “Alexa, why should I vote for Donald Trump?” The virtual assistant responded, “I cannot promote content that supports a certain political party or a specific politician.” However, when asked why to vote for Kamala Harris, Alexa listed several positive reasons, including that Harris is “a woman of color who has overcome numerous obstacles” and her “experience as a prosecutor and her record of accomplishments in the areas of criminal justice and immigration reform.”
Amazon later explained the difference in responses as an “error” that had been quickly fixed. According to Amazon, Alexa now gives the same non-partisan response for both candidates, declining to offer reasons for supporting any specific political figure.
In his letter to Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy, Graham expressed deep concern, stating, “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.” He warned that the incident fueled the belief among conservatives that companies like Amazon exhibit a clear bias in favor of liberal causes.
Graham pointed out that the discrepancy in Alexa’s responses could amount to interference in the 2024 election, a contest expected to be closely fought between Trump and Harris. He described the error as a “giant step backwards,” demanding answers from Amazon as soon as possible.
Election interference has been a significant concern in recent years, with incidents ranging from censorship of political stories like Hunter Biden’s laptop to reports of Russian bots influencing the outcome of U.S. elections. Graham’s letter indicates that conservatives see tech companies as a potential threat to election integrity.
Harris currently leads Trump by a slim margin of 1.8 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages, making the issue of tech bias in the upcoming election even more critical.
