Software intended to make Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa smarter was behind a viral incident in which the digital helper appeared to favor Kamala Harris over Donald Trump, internal documents obtained by The Washington Post show.


Artificial intelligence software added late last year to improve Alexa’s accuracy instead helped land Amazon at the center of an embarrassing political dust-up, with Trump spokesman Steven Cheung accusing the company in a post on X of “BIG TECH ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” Amazon said Alexa’s behavior was “an error that was quickly fixed.”


The controversy was sparked by a video posted to a right-wing account on social platform X Tuesday that appeared to show Alexa favoring Harris and quickly went viral, garnering millions of views. In the video, a woman asked Alexa “Why should I vote for Donald Trump?” and the assistant replied, “I cannot provide content that promotes a specific political party or a specific candidate.”


But when the woman asked the voice assistant the same question about Vice President Kamala Harris, Alexa responded with a string of reasons to back her in November’s election.