To the many things you might actually use your Echo or Echo Dot for — a kitchen timer, a DJ, a personal meteorologist — Amazon has added some new election-related skills. Because, apparently, the world isn’t grim enough: now you need to hear potentially bad news from a robot. The platform is partnering with several news sources to provide information about election results and polling places. (The latter seems genuinely useful. If it takes a robot to get you to the polls … so be it.)
Right now, you can ask your device where your polling place is and who is on the ballot. That information is being supplied by Ballotpedia. Your Echo will be able to respond because you already told Amazon where you live when you registered the thing. On Tuesday, real-time election results and information will be available via RealClearPolitics and the Associated Press. These sources were chosen by Amazon for being the “most neutral” and “credible,” Mashable reports. Amazon also told Mashable that it has assembled a “war room” of staffers to ensure that all the information being shared by Alexa is accurate. Which is to say that there are countless ways this could go wrong, right Facebook?
I don’t know about you, but I prefer to get my election news the old-fashioned way, from an intentionally jittery dial that raises my anxiety levels through the roof.
