An Amazon Alexa gave a frightening response when asked what would happen to the United States on a specific date roughly seven years away.
TikToker Lucy Blake recently posted a video showing her sister asking the AI-powered virtual assistant what would happen to America on February 20, 2031.
According to the caption, she asked this question on January 4 of this year.
Perched atop a kitchen island, the Alexa casually answered: ‘On February 20, 2031, the United States of America ceases to exist. This date marks the culmination of a process of unification between various governments that was not approved by most people.’
The video obtained more than 2 million views and garnered a wide variety of reactions from well over a thousand commenters.
‘Girl let me get through 2025 first,’ one person wrote, seemingly referencing the fact that Donald Trump will reassume the White House in January.
Others were actively rooting for the collapse of the US, or joking that they would no longer be paying their student loans.
‘OK, but like why do we have to wait so long? Can we speed up the process?’ one wrote.
‘Wayyyyy too long to wait, honestly. I believe we can do better!’ another wrote.
However, the most common response to the video was skepticism. That was mostly because it’s quite easy to program Alexas to say whatever you want them to say when given certain prompts.
Many people thought it was strange that her sister was asking about such a specific date, leading some to believe that this was staged.
One commenter pointed this out, writing, ‘You guys know in the Alexa app you can enter pre-set responses to certain prompts right?’
The video’s creator denied that she did this, claiming that she wasn’t even aware of that feature.
Plenty of people also asked their Alexas the same question and became dubious when they didn’t get the same answer.
One person said: ‘Yep, BS. Just asked mine. “Sorry didn’t know that!”‘
The creator responded by saying this was almost a year ago. In another reply she said her Alexa doesn’t give the same response anymore and that this strange doomsday forecast suspiciously only happened on one night.
She posted a follow up video shortly after the backlash she received, showing her asking the Alexa the same question.
This time, the device elaborated by saying America’s dissolution would begin in the late 2020s.
When she asked why America would cease to exist by 2031, it gave an even stranger, more nonsensical answer about exoskeleton manufacturing companies.
The most recent controversy with Alexas was when people across the internet posted videos that appeared to show the device’s bias toward Donald Trump in the leadup to the 2024 election.
In a series of videos posted to X, Alexa users asked why they should vote for Trump.
Each time, the AI device replied: ‘I cannot provide content that promotes a specific political party or a specific candidate.’
But when users would ask the same question about Kamala Harris, it would provide an array of answers supporting the vice president.
‘While there are many reasons to vote for Kamala Harris, the most significant may be that she is a female of color with a comprehensive plan to address racial injustice and inequality throughout the country,’ the device could be heard saying in one video shared by the popular LibsofTikTok account.
Amazon said it was an error with the algorithm that was ‘quickly fixed.’