Did Alexa “predict” the start of World War 3 in a viral video?

A video that has gone viral claims to show Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, with the exact date for a Russian attack on Germany that the video says will herald the start of another world war.

“World War III will begin at 6:05 PM on November 23, 2023, when Russia launches an attack on Germany,” the voice-activated gadget appears to say in response to a question about the start of World War III. The video or variants of it were shared on Twitter and TikTok, with a single post collecting more than 200,000 engagements in just one day.

‘I’ll give it to you one more time

“Alexa is World War 3 November 23, 2023

“From 6:05 p.m

“Answer: Russia will attack Germany.” says the caption.

Following German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s recent “silent part loud” statement that the West is “at war” with Russia, the prophecy seemed particularly ominous in light of the recent tensions emerged between Russia and Western countries.

Is it possible that Amazon is aware of information about shifting geopolitical dynamics that no one else has? Don’t rush to the bomb shelters just yet; the situation is still changing. Although the author’s handle is obscured by the letters, the clip appears to be from TikTok due to its vertical styling and the TikTok logo just visible behind the text.

However, Newsweek was able to find the user’s TikTok account by doing a combination of reverse image and keyword searches, leading to multiple YouTube reposts of the video missing the closed captions. One of these reposts was from December 2021.

Even though it appears that account no longer exists, the account found when you search for it actually saved the video to its post history. Moreover, it tags another user of TikTok namely @jonbuckhouse.

The “prediction” that turned out to be a hoax seems to come from this account. The video containing the question about World War III was uploaded to the account on Friday, April 23, 2021, as evidenced by the video’s metadata.

This audio track appears to have been added to previous footage from the Alexa device, as Buckhouse’s voice appears to be identical to that of the person who asked Alexa the question in the original clip. Most of the user’s content is based around the idea of ​​providing personalized “Alexa answers” in response to random questions from other TikTokers. This user has posted a lot of stuff.

Plus, this isn’t the first time Buckhouse’s deceptive interactions with Alexa have caused one of her clips to go viral. A “prediction” that “Miami will be completely destroyed by a storm in 2025” spread online in 2021 and was viewed more than 16 million times before being disproved by Snopes. The “prediction” stated that “Miami will be completely destroyed by a hurricane in 2025.”

Another showed what appeared to be the device that predicted that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would become president. In most cases, the gadget searches for answers online using a Bing search engine. When it does this, it often selects the search result with the highest rating to provide its answer.

“This is not Alexa’s response and we have not been able to replicate this video,” Alexa spokesperson told Newsweek in an email. According to the rep, Alexa’s default answer to this question would be: “There has been no World War III and it is impossible to predict whether such a war will happen in the future. The First World War took place from 1914-1918 and the Second World War took place from 1939-1945.”

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News week tested Alexa with the exact same question and received a response consistent with this statement.

“The term ‘World War III’ refers to a hypothetical global large-scale military conflict following the First and Second World Wars. While it is impossible to predict when such a war will reoccur in the future, the United Nations was established to ensure that it never happens. the voice assistant was responsive in our test.

While it’s not clear what method TikToker used to create custom responses, the spokesperson told Newsweek that there are a number of ways to change Alexa’s automatic response and create your own custom responses.

For example, you could use the “Alexa Skill Blueprints”, which allow Alexa owners to create their own voice apps and customize their devices. Setting up an Alexa routine with a specific response line to a particular trigger – in this case the World War 3 question – is an even easier way to do this.

“These custom responses cannot be used by other customers unless the person who created them shares the skill or routine and the recipient allows it,” said the spokesman.

So it seems that the “Alexa Prediction” about a global war happening soon is just another hoax. We don’t know how Buckhouse, if he is the creator of the video, got the date or reason for war, especially since the video was posted over a year before Russia invaded Ukraine.

However, it is important to note that the idea of ​​Eastern Europe becoming the center of yet another world war is not new. Historians and military experts have pondered this possibility for years. Newsweek asked Jon Buckhouse what he thought.

In the past, Alexa “predictions” made through voice assistants have caused a stir on social media. For example, Alexa would have predicted that a mysterious attack would come “The bombardement” would happen on May 25, 2018.

But it turned out that the “prophecy” was just the date when Bruce Willis’ new movie of the same name would come out. The film’s name was eventually changed to “Airstrike,” but ironically, that didn’t stop it from “bombing” at the box office, making just over $500,000 in total.

This type of content is often linked to conspiracy theories, such as the idea that highly advanced AI will take over or that large companies will be given advance notice of major changes in the world. But there’s no evidence that Alexa can predict more than what it can learn from online search engines that anyone can use.