Like many of us — when we’re not being asked to play more Adele or order more toilet paper — Amazon’s Alexa likes to talk politics. And, you may have heard, it’s been quite a season to talk.
Just in time for the third presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Alexa’s functionalities have been updated to allow the AI assistant to best answer your questions. If you’ve already managed to watch two debates, you can’t look away now that it’s time for the third and final one. Here’s how Alexa can help before Wednesday evening:
- “Alexa, when is the next presidential debate?”
- “Alexa, what time is the debate on?”
- “Alexa, what channel is the debate on?”
- “Alexa, where is the debate taking place?”
- (Post-debate) “Alexa, who won last night’s debate?”
And here are a few from us that we think should have been considered:
- “Alexa, has Ken Bone decided yet?”
- “Alexa, read me Alec Baldwin’s tweets.”
- “Alexa, when is ‘Saturday Night Live’ on?”
Amazon says that millions of questions have been directed at Alexa about the election between the first and last presidential debate. Users made twice as many queries about “Donald Trump” as they did about “Hillary Clinton” and “Alexa, who are you voting for?” was asked over 13,000 more times than “Alexa, who should I vote for?”
Not sure what’s scarier there. The possibility that some folks might think Alexa is allowed to vote, or, the fact that some people might actually vote for whomever Alexa tells them to.
Depending on how things go for you and your candidate(s) of choice come Nov. 8, you’re either going to love hearing from Alexa or you’re going to wish she’d just shut up. There are plenty of ways to stay abreast of what’s happening with election returns, but why not just shout your questions at that thing on your kitchen counter — you’ve been shouting for months about this election anyway!
Here is how Amazon is updating Alexa’s capabilities for the actual day when this will all be decided:
- “Alexa, who is winning the presidential election?”
- “Alexa, who is leading in the presidential polls?”
- “Alexa, which states has Trump won?”
- “Alexa, which states is Trump projected to win?”
- “Alexa, how many electoral votes does Hillary have?”
- “Alexa, what percent of the popular vote does Hillary have?”
- “Alexa, who won Iowa?”
- “Alexa, who is winning in Florida?”
- “Alexa, who is projected to win Idaho?”
- “Alexa, how many votes did Trump get in Idaho?”
- “Alexa, what are the election results?”
Again, here are a few more we’d have thrown in the mix:
- “Alexa, what channel is Trump TV?”
- “Alexa, explain the process for gaining Canadian citizenship.”
- “Alexa, is it 2020 yet?”
