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Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

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Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#11

Inane "AI" regurgitating what it is parsing from social media echo chambers as the epitome of "progress". You cant blame algorithms. People will get the digital society they deserve. Unless they do something about it. A sane online world will not materialize as a god-given present. It will the result of informed, enlightened and passionate people banging about the cause for as long as it takes. The challenge is comme…

Or maybe our masters to be could put a little more effort into what goes into their black boxes instead of counting their future fortunes.

Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#12

Inane "AI" regurgitating what it is parsing from social media echo chambers as the epitome of "progress". You cant blame algorithms. People will get the digital society they deserve. Unless they do something about it. A sane online world will not materialize as a god-given present. It will the result of informed, enlightened and passionate people banging about the cause for as long as it takes. The challenge is comme…

Why can't I blame algorithms? These are heuristics that often misinform people. In my view someone, maybe Biden or the DNC or the FEC or the people asking Alexa, should have a claim to sue Amazon for something like defamation. Amazon has a reckless disregard for the truth and publishes lies through Alexa. (Assuming all this is true, no opinion on that).

If Amazon gets sued enough they'll either make their service better or discontinue it.

Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#13

Well that's just going to fuel more conspiracy theories. Sigh. It was amazing when states like PA were counting and clearly said results will change by the morning, and when that happened and people woke up to a different result they started crying conspiracy. The election definitely wasn't rigged, but if it had been necessary to do so I would have supported it. Can't ever repeat the disaster we had from 2016 - 2022…

"If democracy doesn't return the result we want we'll rig the system to return that result anyway"

If people can't be trusted to vote responsibly (i.e. not voting in someone openly talking about being a dictator, openly racist, openly bigoted), then I'm fine with bypassing the vote.

It's a flawed system anyway. Ridiculous that everyone should have a say.

Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#14

Well that's just going to fuel more conspiracy theories. Sigh. It was amazing when states like PA were counting and clearly said results will change by the morning, and when that happened and people woke up to a different result they started crying conspiracy. The election definitely wasn't rigged, but if it had been necessary to do so I would have supported it. Can't ever repeat the disaster we had from 2016 - 2022…

> The election definitely wasn't rigged, but if it had been necessary to do so I would have supported it. Can't ever repeat the disaster we had from 2016 - 2022 again.

Ah yes, as a student of 1940s Jewish culture, I am quite fond of the "it didn't happen, but they deserved it" angle myself.

Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If democracy doesn't return the result we want we'll rig the system to return that result anyway"

George Washington in his transfer of power farewell speech warned Americans to avoid factionalism, right? But never mind that. Our party base (true speaking for either franchise that extracts rents from the need for electoral viability now) are more patriotic than that dude. Or we only have to outrun the slower party in order to successfully outrun the grizzly bear of being less best for the country. No other account…

The problem is you have half the country severely lacking in education and their thoughts and ideas about what is best for the country don't correspond to reality.

Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#16

Well that's just going to fuel more conspiracy theories. Sigh. It was amazing when states like PA were counting and clearly said results will change by the morning, and when that happened and people woke up to a different result they started crying conspiracy. The election definitely wasn't rigged, but if it had been necessary to do so I would have supported it. Can't ever repeat the disaster we had from 2016 - 2022…

GOP made every effort to rig it, but failed.

Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#17

Well that's just going to fuel more conspiracy theories. Sigh. It was amazing when states like PA were counting and clearly said results will change by the morning, and when that happened and people woke up to a different result they started crying conspiracy. The election definitely wasn't rigged, but if it had been necessary to do so I would have supported it. Can't ever repeat the disaster we had from 2016 - 2022…

"If democracy doesn't return the result we want we'll rig the system to return that result anyway"

It's an interesting (and scary/depressing) subject to think about - what proportion of people would or wouldn't find that acceptable in even more extreme circumstance?

Let's imagine a hypothetical political party and its presidential nominee that had an official policy of "if we get elected, we will nuke every country in the world except our own, and if we don't get destroyed in return we'll then move on to use our military to murder every white person in America" (hopefully that's extreme enough and far enough from actual policies for anyone to read it as a dig against a particular party!), and imagine 51% of the country supported this party and these policies. How many people would go "well fair enough, democracy!"?

It's a bit like that old line attributed to Churchill:

> Churchill: "Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?"

> Socialite: "My goodness, Mr. Churchill... Well, I suppose... we would have to discuss terms, of course... "

> Churchill: "Would you sleep with me for five pounds?"

> Socialite: "Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!"

> Churchill: "Madam, we've already established that. Now we are haggling about the price"

It's easy (for some people, though I don't condone this view) to look down on prostitutes as being immoral and disgusting if nobody would offer you more than £5, but how many people with that view would be willing to bend their ethics if they genuinely had an offer of tens of millions in return for having sex one time?

Likewise, it's easy to say we should respect democracy when both sides genuinely want what's best for as many people as possible but disagree on how to achieve that, but what about if democratic voting leads to having a leader like Stalin, or Idi Amin, or Putin?

Put another way: if you sincerely believe either that all Democrats are evil and trying to wipe out white people and destroy Christianity, or you believe that Republicans are all literally the same as Hitler and will do as much harm, in either case (despite neither view being accurate) if it's a genuine belief then isn't the ethical reaction to oppose them even if undemocratic? (As a non-American I can't claim to be an expert on what the worst, most-exaggerated claims made against each of Biden and Trump are, so insert whatever they are to replace the examples above.)

One problem is when you get leaders who genuinely will do evil things and yet manage to be popular enough to win elections; the second problem is when you have enough people believing conspiracy theories and bad faith claims about a party that make them look evil. Neither is an easy problem to solve.

Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#18

Well that's just going to fuel more conspiracy theories. Sigh. It was amazing when states like PA were counting and clearly said results will change by the morning, and when that happened and people woke up to a different result they started crying conspiracy. The election definitely wasn't rigged, but if it had been necessary to do so I would have supported it. Can't ever repeat the disaster we had from 2016 - 2022…

"If democracy doesn't return the result we want we'll rig the system to return that result anyway"

“a republic, if you can keep it.” - Franklin

Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If democracy doesn't return the result we want we'll rig the system to return that result anyway"

If people can't be trusted to vote responsibly (i.e. not voting in someone openly talking about being a dictator, openly racist, openly bigoted), then I'm fine with bypassing the vote. It's a flawed system anyway. Ridiculous that everyone should have a say.

> "Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time..." - Winston Churchill

(Since it's the second quote of his I've used in this thread, I'd like to actively clarify that despite being British I am a long way from being a fan of Churchill, but he does have some good quotes attributed to him!)

So when you say "It's a flawed system anyway. Ridiculous that everyone should have a say." - do you have a better system in mind, that works better than existing forms of democracy?

Re: Amazon's Alexa Telling Users That 2020 Election Was Rigged

#20
post #3

How can the FCC not regulate this?

Because the FCC has to respect the first amendment

You think Alexa has 1st amendment rights, which apply to misinformation? It's a point still under discussion, nothing like settled law.
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