While not the first of its kind, Amazon’s Smart Assistant Alexa has gained some buzz recently for a number of its pre-programmed responses to certain controversial questions, and many were surprised to hear the device take a definitive side.
Some of these results included questions about the Black Lives Matter movement, where Alexa revealed herself to be a supporter of the movement. Alexa also revealed herself to be a feminist, “as is anyone who believes in bridging the inequality between men and women in society”. It should be mentioned that Apple’s smart assistant completely avoids answering any political questions or taking sides on any hot-button issues.
But many may have no issue with whatever character Amazon decided to create for their little artificial-intelligence product. After all, the device does not push users to sign up for Black Lives Matter, nor does it push users to adopt feminism or to identify as a feminist themselves. So far, these two statements only speak about what Alexa, herself, believes, and do not speak to her views on other people or political figures.
Political figures such as, for example, President Trump. Although Alexa will give an impartial answer if asked about the president directly, new information is revealed while playing akinator (a game where Alexa will ask a series of questions in order to try to guess which popular character a player is thinking of) with the machine. In a Youtube video by Youtube user Fernando C, a person plays Akinator with Alexa while thinking of the president. The AI asks a series of questions until eventually, one decisive one comes up: “Is your character a well-known racist?” Answering “yes” to this question brings Alexa to guess that the character is President Donald Trump, which brings the video to a close.
But this isn’t the end of Alexa’s oddly topical responses. In a Youtube video by popular Republican Youtuber Stephen Chowder, Chowder and a friend ask Alexa a series of questions. Of all questions asked, the most shocking response comes from Chowder asking Alexa who Jesus Christ is, to which the AI responds, “Jesus Christ is a fictional character”. This response is odd for a number of reasons: First, it seems definitively anti-Christian rather than being any kind of political statement. Second, it is objectively false. While Jesus Christ’s identity as the son of the Christian God is up to personal religious debate, Jesus Christ was a real person, and is certainly not a fictional character. Even more confusing is the fact that this answer was not taken from any kind of outside or third-party source. When Alexa quotes a website or search result, she will always make it clear where she is taking the information from. For example, when taking information from Google, she says, “According to Google…”. This, on the other hand, is one plain and clear statement, one that would have to be programmed directly in response to this specific question.
To make this statement even more confusing, Chowder’s video also records Alexa’s answer to the question: “Who was The Prophet Mohammed”, to which Alexa responded that The Prophet Mohammed was a very wise prophet who lived in Saudi Arabia. The discrepancy here is almost nonsensical. Surely these responses were approved by multiple people and overseen by a large tech crew, and yet the device shows respect to certain religious characters and blatant disrespect to others.
This situation becomes even more ironic when one remembers that Muslims believe that Jesus Christ is the predecessor to Mohammed and that Mohammed himself had some respect for Jesus Christ and called him a Messiah.
Featured Image via Google
