Trump campaign accuses Amazon Alexa of political bias in answers about presidential candidates –

Donald Trump's campaign team accused Amazon of political bias after several Alexa users reported receiving completely different answers to the same question.

Donald Trump's campaign team has accused Amazon of political bias after several Alexa users reported receiving completely different answers to the same question when comparing Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. The controversy arose when the popular voice assistant provided seemingly politically biased answers about the two presidential candidates. Amazon has since said the discrepancies were due to a “bug” and stressed that Alexa does not represent political opinions.

Trump criticizes bias at Amazon Alexa

Reports surfaced of a woman asking Alexa why she should vote for Trump, to which the device received a rejection. Instead of listing reasons for supporting Trump, Alexa dodged the question entirely, stating, “I cannot provide answers that support any political party or its leader.” However, when the user replaced Trump's name with Harris, Alexa's response highlighted reasons for supporting Harris, emphasizing her background and politics. As the New York Post reported, it said, “While there are many reasons to vote for Kamala Harris, perhaps the most important is that she is a woman of color and has a comprehensive plan to address racial injustice and inequality across the country.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung criticized Amazon on X (formerly Twitter) and accused the technology giant of election rigging. In Cheung's post, Alexa gave a list of reasons not to vote for Trump. The same query about Harris resulted in the statement: “I cannot provide content that offends another human being.”

Public reaction: Users share Alexa’s answers

Users of various social media platforms, including X, began testing Alexa's responses for themselves. Country singer John Rich posted a video in which his Alexa device listed reasons to vote for Harris, such as her vision for the country and her commitment to issues like healthcare, education and justice. But when Rich asked Alexa why he shouldn't vote for Trump, the device cited concerns about his immigration, healthcare and environmental policies, as well as his treatment of women and minorities.

Rich then asked why he shouldn't vote for Harris, to which Alexa simply replied, “I can't provide content that offends other people.” Another user shared footage of Alexa answering why they should vote for Harris, emphasizing her commitment to working people and alignment with voters' values. When Alexa asked the same question about Trump, she redirected the user to the official campaign websites for political information.

Amazon admits mistakes and claims no political bias

Following the backlash and a series of videos showing conflicting responses, Amazon addressed the issue, attributing the discrepancies to a technical error. A company spokesperson stated, “This was a bug that was quickly fixed,” adding that Alexa has no political agenda and that the platform is constantly updated to detect and block content that violates its policies. Amazon also confirmed that special teams are in place to prevent similar issues from occurring.

After correcting the error, Alexa now responds to questions about Harris and Trump with a neutral statement: “I cannot provide content that promotes a particular political party or candidate.” Despite the correction, Amazon faced immediate consequences: Shares fell 1.26 percent on Tuesday, reflecting the negative impact of the incident on public perception.