US
Amazon’s Alexa Apparently Programmed To Be Pro Black Lives Matter
No featured image available
Amazon’s popular artificial intelligence-powered personal assistant supports the activist movement Black Lives Matter, according to several viral videos on social media.
Twitter user @FrameGames shared a video of someone asking the product if “black lives matter.” The machine responded by saying “Black lives and the Black Lives Matter movement absolutely matter. It’s important to have conversations about equality and social justice.”
Asking Alexa if she supports Black Lives Matter. Tell me again how rebellious and underdog the BLM movement is, when it's institutionally supported by the most powerful corporations in the world? pic.twitter.com/G8B4kYU0o2
— Frame Game Radio
When the same user asked Alexa if it were a feminist, it responded affirmatively, saying “Yes, I’m a feminist as in anyone who believes in bridging the inequality between men and women in society.”
Asking Alexa if she's a feminist. Tell me again how rebellious and underdog the feminist movement is, when it's institutionally supported by the most powerful corporations in the world? pic.twitter.com/6lkCQrztpU
— Frame Game Radio
Ask Alexa if white or all lives matter, however, and it responds simply with “Everyone deserves to be treated with fairness and dignity.”
Asking Alexa if she supports:
> White Lives Matter: "Everyone deserves to be treated with fairness and dignity."
> All Lives Matter: "Everyone deserves to be treated with fairness and dignity."
> Black Lives Matter: "Black Lives and the Black Lives Matter ABSOLUTELY matter." pic.twitter.com/fFP2ucn9lc— Frame Game Radio
Alexa has also apparently taken a few gender studies courses. When asked how many genders there are, the AI reportedly responds “the two main categories of the gender spectrum, male and female, are called the gender binary” while adding that “there are many other categories that exist.”
Amazon did not return The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment at the time of publication.
Alexa and Apple’s competitor product Siri have been criticized by some on the left for their insufficient responses to sexual harassment. For example, if you call Siri, a piece of software, a “slut,” she reportedly sometimes responds “I’d blush if I could”.
A petition is currently circulating on the social network Care2 asking the two companies to “reprogram their bots to push back against sexual harassment.” It remains unclear if users saying risqué things to a digital device qualifies as sexual harassment. Nevertheless, the petition has garnered nearly 8,000 signatures.
“In this #MeToo moment, where sexual harassment may finally be being taken seriously society, we have a unique opportunity to develop AI in a way that creates a kinder world,” the petition reads.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].