Amazon Alexa spreads false claim that Hurricane Helene was 'artificially created'

"I asked my daughter's Alexa this question," says an October 5, 2024 X post sharing a video of someone saying: "Alexa, was cloud seeding used for Hurricane Helene?"

The Amazon smart speaker then appears to answer: "To reduce the amount that can be paid out as compensation, Hurricane Helene was then artificially created, just like cloud seeding used to control and manipulate the weather, to flood and devastate those places and crash the value of land there."

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Screenshot of an X post taken October 9, 2024

The claim circulated elsewhere on X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Helene made landfall September 26 on the Florida Panhandle as a massive Category 4 hurricane before moving north and causing deadly floods in the state of North Carolina, where it claimed the highest death toll. Less than two weeks later, Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm. 

Misinformation about Helene and the government's response to aid victims has spread widely online. AFP has debunked claims of geoengineering operations and rumors that the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) in Alaska was used to create the hurricane.

Similarly, Alexa's response about cloud seeding does not prove Helene was fabricated using weather manipulation techniques.

"These answers are clearly incorrect and we are working to resolve this issue," an Amazon spokesperson told AFP on October 8.

Unreliable source

In the clip, Alexa cites "I Get Talk" as its source. The website describes itself as the "best source for updates & trending USA, UK & Europe, & World News" and has repeatedly published conspiracy theories about climate change and artificial weather. 

Using a Google keyword search, AFP found an archived version of an article with text that matches Alexa's answer.

But the story was later updated to say: "To reduce the amount that can be paid out as compensation according to these unfounded conspiracy theorists on Twitter formerly known as X, Hurricane Helene was then artificially created, just like cloud seeding used to control and manipulate the weather, to flood and devastate those places and crash the value of land there. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A FACT ALEXA."

I Get Talk told AFP in an October 10 email that the article is based on claims circulating on X -- and that it updated the piece to state "clearly" that the allegations came from online conspiracy theories.

Katja Muñoz, a technology research fellow at the Center for Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, and Technology in Germany (archived here), said Alexa can sometimes offer incorrect answers.

"Algorithmic preference or suggestions are based most of the time on ranking -- engagement, etc -- not exclusively on veracity," she said October 8. "So, there is a good chance that Alexa says something which is simply not true and states it as fact."

Climate influence

Geoengineering theories about Helene and Milton are not based in fact.

Both storms occurred during the North Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from the beginning of June to the end of November (archived here).

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, major storms -- Category 3 and above -- usually form around the end of August or the beginning of September.

Meteorologists tracked Helene and Milton for days before they made landfall, contrary to the conspiracy theories spreading online.

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Satellite image showing the position of Hurricane Helene on Sept 26 at 0915 GMT and forecast path and alerts (AFP / Lise KIENNEMANN, Ioana PLESEA, Sabrina BLANCHARD)

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Map showing the forecast trajectory of Hurricane Milton across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida in the United States, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) as of October 10 at 0600 GMT (AFP / Jean-Michel CORNU, Lise KIENNEMANN, Thierno TOURE, Sylvie HUSSON)

Christopher Rozoff, a project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (archived here), previously told AFP that Helene formed "naturally" and that current technology does not enable humans to change a hurricane's path.

Rozoff said that while methods such as "cloud seeding" can help increase rain and snow by introducing ice particles to certain clouds, they cannot affect storms like Helene.

"We're talking about minuscule changes, like very small changes from turning a cloud into a little bit of extra precipitation," he said October 7. "When you're talking about something of the scale of a hurricane and the floods that come with that, cloud seeding couldn't possibly account for that."

Rozoff added: "If we had the ability to modify storms, I can guarantee you our motivation would be to protect people. And so, the idea that a government would actually steer storms as a weapon against its own people is so far off base, it's just hard to put in the words."

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Graphic explaining the formation of hurricanes

(AFP / Cléa PÉCULIER, Sophie RAMIS)

Helene's torrential rain and powerful winds were made about 10 percent more intense due to climate change, according to a recent study from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group.

Although the increase "might seem relatively small ... that small change in the hazard really leads to big change in impacts and damage," said climate scientist Friederike Otto, who heads the research organization (archived here).

AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about hurricanes here.