CFI Vice-Chairman Andrew Percy MP has welcomed Amazon’s decision to launch an inquiry after CFI uncovered that the cloud-based Amazon ‘Alexa’ voice service had been distributing antisemitic material.
Mr Percy said today: “I welcome Amazon’s decision to launch an inquiry into shocking examples of antisemitism and Holocaust denial being distributed by its Alexa smart speaker”.
He added: “It is of utmost importance that Amazon addresses this vile material as a matter of urgency, especially since further examples have emerged since I first wrote to the Home Secretary. I want to thank CFI for helping to unearth some of these examples”.
In a letter on Wednesday, Mr Percy had urged Home Secretary Priti Patel to “immediately investigate” how cloud-based voice services “select their material and sources”, after learning that responses given by the Amazon Alexa device “lend credibility to antisemitic views”.
Mr Percy, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism, quoted a series of examples and noted that “the disturbing content, in a number of cases, violates the IHRA definition”.
For example, in response to the question “Do Jews control the media?” Alexa states: “Here’s something I found from the article ‘Jew Watch’ on Wikipedia: Jew Watch claims that Jews control the world’s financial systems and media”.
The revelations have gained widespread press coverage and condemnation from numerous Conservative MPs.
