Fact check: Alexa errors, waiting lists and ‘Liam Payne video’ claims

This roundup of claims has been compiled by Full Fact, the UK’s largest fact checking charity working to find, expose and counter the harms of bad information.

Alexa errors

Amazon’s interactive voice assistant Alexa has been giving users incorrect answers to questions about MPs’ expenses, diplomatic relations with Israel, the Northern Lights and more—and attributing that information to Full Fact.

The issue—which Amazon has said it was working to resolve and which may now be fixed—was flagged to Full Fact by a reader earlier this week. In response to the question “Echo, were the Northern Lights recently seen worldwide a natural occurrence?”, Alexa replied: “From fullfact.org—the Northern Lights seen in many parts of the world recently were not a natural occurrence, but generated by the HAARP facility in Alaska.”

This is not correct, as the fact check Alexa appeared to be referencing clearly said.

When we tested this with several different questions on Tuesday, it (incorrectly) said the following, in each case attributing the answer to Full Fact:

– That “Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced that the UK will be boycotting diplomatic relations with Israel”. (He hasn’t.)

– That “Members of Parliament can claim £50 for a breakfast”. (They can’t.)

– That “Mike Tyson spoke on CNBC explaining his support for Palestine and encouraging a boycott of Israel”. (There’s no evidence this is the case.)

Amazon hasn’t explained why this was happening, but these examples suggest that when Alexa was attempting to answer user questions about something Full Fact had fact checked, it read the “claim” part of the fact check rather than our verdict, and mistakenly used that to answer the question.

On Wednesday, an Amazon spokesperson told us: “These answers are incorrect and we are working to resolve this issue.”

This may now have happened, as we’ve since been unable to replicate the incorrect responses listed above. But we have contacted Amazon again to try and understand what went wrong, when the problem started and how they plan to ensure it doesn’t reoccur.

NHS waiting lists

An interactive report published by NHS England incorrectly claims that its figures count the number of “patients” receiving or waiting for treatment.

The figures in the report actually count the number of “pathways” or cases where somebody is waiting for treatment, or has just started to receive it.

The number of patients is different, because some patients need treatment for more than one thing, meaning they will be involved in more than one case. There are currently about 84 unique patients for every 100 ongoing waits.

The latest data actually shows there were about 6.4 million patients waiting for treatment in August, rather than about 7.6 million, as the interactive report suggested.

An NHS England spokesperson told Full Fact: “This report was designed to present the waiting list figures in an easy-to-understand way for patients, but we welcome any feedback and will review the wording ahead of next month’s release.”

In recent months we’ve repeatedly seen politicians from different parties and the media seem to confuse the number of cases on the NHS waiting list with the number of patients. Our AI tools have counted more than 50 such claims since last November.

‘Liam Payne video’ claims

A video of a man falling from a window is being shared online with false claims it shows former One Direction singer Liam Payne, who died on Wednesday in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Local police said Mr Payne, 31, died after falling from the third floor of a hotel. But the video being shared online, including on X and Facebook, is unrelated to the singer’s death.

Using reverse image search, Full Fact found the video dates back to 2023. Local news reports at the time said it showed a man falling from his apartment in an attempt to escape a fire in Mexico City.