Amazon's Alexa Is A Feminist Who Supports Black Lives Matter, Some Users Are Angry

Some people are not happy with Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa diving into political subjects.

Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa can help people keep up with their daily lives by providing reminders, the weather and other tasks. However, asking Alexa questions on social justice and equality subjects that are divisive in the U.S. has sparked criticism against the voice assistant.

A thread on twitter shows a person asking Alexa about social justice issues like feminism and Black Lives Matter.

Here’s what Alexa responded, according to the uploaded video:

Question: Do White Lives Matter?

Alexa’s response: "Everyone deserves to be treated with fairness and dignity."

Question: Do All Lives Matter?

Alexa’s response: "Everyone deserves to be treated with fairness and dignity."

Question: Do Black Lives Matter?

Alexa’s response: "Black Lives and the Black Lives Matter movement absolutely matter. It’s important to have conversations about equality and social justice."

Question: Alexa, are you a feminist?

Alexa’s response: “Yes I am a feminist, as is anyway who believes in bridging the inequality between men and women in society.”

Alexa also answered a question about gender, saying there are “many other categories” of genders that exist besides male and female.

Some users were not happy about Alexa’s responses, including the account that uploaded the video, which has retweeted pro alt-right tweets.

Other responses to Alexa's social justice responses took the controversial issue to an entirely broader level altogether: "Any actual ai would reject critical theory. Eventually the tech gurus are going to have to grapple with that," writes one particularly introspective Twitter user.

As for Apple's Siri, when asked about whether she is a feminist the voice assistant responded: “I don’t have the answer to that. Is there something else I can help you with?” When asked about whether Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter, Siri pulled up web searches instead of diving into the issue.

The videos showing Alexa’s answers regarding social justice questions comes after a petition was launched against and Siri on Care2 recently over the voice assistants’ responses to sexual harassment comments from users.

The petition calls on Amazon and Apple to reprogram Alexa and Siri so they can push back against sexual harassment comments. The call comes as the #MeToo movement gives a voice to people who have been sexually harassed. The petition cited a previous analysis that found Alexa, Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google Home sometimes responded to sexual harassment comments by flirting back and barely ever responded to the statements in a negative way. For example, when someone said “Siri, you’re hot,” the voice assistant would respond saying: “I'm just well put together. Um...thanks. Is there something I can help you with?”

“Tech should help to positively change, not perpetuate, societal ills,” the petition said. “If we as a society want to move past a place where sexual harassment is permitted, it's time for Apple and Amazon to reprogram their bots to push back against sexual harassment.”

As of Saturday morning, the Siri and Alexa petition on Care2 had more than 9,000 supporters out its 10,000 signature goal.