{"id":386811,"date":"2021-12-28T19:40:52","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T16:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/alexa-goaded-a-child-to-electrocute-themselves-review-geek\/"},"modified":"2021-12-28T19:40:52","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T16:40:52","slug":"alexa-goaded-a-child-to-electrocute-themselves-review-geek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/alexa-goaded-a-child-to-electrocute-themselves-review-geek\/","title":{"rendered":"#Alexa Goaded a Child to Electrocute Themselves \u2013 Review Geek"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Alexa Goaded a Child to Electrocute Themselves \u2013 Review Geek”<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Amazon<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Parents are questioning the kid-friendly nature of Amazon\u2019s smart speakers after Alexa \u201cchallenged\u201d a ten-year-old girl to stick a penny in a power outlet<\/a>. Thankfully, the child\u2019s mom caught Alexa giving instructions for this \u201cchallenge,\u201d which Amazon promptly scrubbed from Alexa search results.<\/p>\n

When you ask Alexa a question, it performs a Bing search and automatically presents the \u201cbest\u201d answer it can find. In this case, a ten-year-old girl asked Alexa for \u201ca challenge\u201d after following kid-friendly physical education challenges on YouTube<\/a>. The smart speaker pulled a search result for the TikTok Penny Challenge<\/a>, in which kids pull a plug halfway out of a socket and touch a penny to its prongs to create sparks of electricity.<\/p>\n

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Hi there. We’re sorry to hear this! Please reach out to us directly via the following link so that we can look into this further with you: https:\/\/t.co\/YlLYrTtGzy<\/a>. We hope this helps. -Daragh<\/p>\n

\u2014 Amazon Help (@AmazonHelp) December 27, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Alexa attributes this challenge to an article on Our Community Now<\/a>. Ironically, this article warns<\/em> parents that the TikTok Penny Challenge will kill their kid, take their kid\u2019s arm off, or start a house fire. Alexa did not understand the context of this article and presented the Penny Challenge\u2019s lethal instructions without any warnings.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that Amazon needs to improve on Alexa\u2019s search functionality\u2014this is more than just a safety problem; Alexa genuinely sucks<\/a> at answering basic questions. But this specific incident could (probably<\/em>) be avoided by setting an Echo smart speaker into Kids\u2019 Edition<\/a> mode. Alexa only pulls search results from approved sources<\/a> when in kids\u2019 mode, and it automatically filters some language and topics.<\/p>\n

That said, parents aren\u2019t to blame when their Alexa smart speaker tells a child to do something dangerous. This is Amazon\u2019s responsibility; families should have peace of mind when installing an Echo speaker in their home, even if that speaker is set to \u201cadult\u201d mode.\n<\/p><\/div>\n