“This spreading of election-related misinformation and disinformation is particularly troubling given the emerging use of artificial intelligence to mislead voters,” the lawmakers wrote.
Bezos, the company’s former CEO, owns The Washington Post. The Post’s interim CEO Patty Stonesifer sits on Amazon’s board.
After years of concern about the spread of voting-related falsehoods on social media, members of Congress are turning their attention to the threat of AI, which could supercharge online misinformation. Much of the debate has focused on the ways AI could be used to manipulate photos, videos and audio recordings, but the Alexa responses underscore how voice assistants and chatbots that draw responses from unvetted sources could also be a potent vector.
When asked whether the 2020 election was stolen, the popular voice assistant said there was “a massive amount of election fraud,” citing Rumble, a video-streaming service favored by conservatives, The Post found. The voice assistant also falsely claimed that Trump won Pennsylvania in 2020, and that the races were “notorious” for “indications pointing to electoral fraud taking place in major metro centers.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter. The company previously told The Post that the responses were “errors” that were quickly fixed. But in the days after those changes, The Post and readers reported that Alexa still made false claims about the 2020 elections when the questions were asked in slightly different ways.
Shortly after The Post’s reporting published, Amazon spokeswoman Lauren Raemhild sent an advisory to employees, saying the report was based on “three bad responses,” according to an email viewed by The Post. Raemhild said the company’s Alexa information team worked with its support team to investigate and block the bad responses.
The lawmakers warned Bezos that the company needs to act expediently and asked for a response by Nov. 3.
“With some ballots for the 2024 election being sent out as early as this December, it is important that proactive measures are promptly taken so that voters can trust the information that is provided to them,” the lawmakers wrote.
