Alexa: Rise of the Machines

By RodneyHatfieldJr for Into The Mind

Nobody saw the warning signs or red flags on their path to decimation. It was just something that happened and surprised everyone. Our upcoming judgment day is coming with the benefit of a multitude of warning signs. We are just ignoring them. The machines will win unless we act now.


The latest warning comes in the form of an Alexa voice assistant unit that attempted to (inadvertently?) murder a 10-year-old child. The Alexa in question challenged the young girl to touch a penny up against a half-inserted plug. A live plug. 


As the news story goes, the young girl asked Alexa a “challenge to do” question. Accordingly, Alexa asks the internet to come up with ideas. Who would imagine? The internet gives Amazon’s Alexa an answer that would end in the module giving the user a challenge. Most of these challenges were silly and not life-threatening. Except when it finds a trending and stupid challenge.


The girl’s mom, Kristin Livdahl took to Twitter to talk about the horrifying occurrence. “We were doing some physical challenges, like laying down and rolling over holding a shoe on your foot, from a teacher on YouTube earlier. Bad weather outside. She just wanted another one.”


Apparently, the Alexa Echo used a search the web option to search for a “challenge”. Luckily, the young girl was smarter than some people and didn’t try it. A little background on the penny-plug challenge (and also proves why we need warning labels). An old and extremely asinine Tik Tok challenge that challenged users to touch a penny up against a half-inserted plug. Because you know using a fork would be stupid. It was one of those moronic viral challenges that went the way of the inept and fell out of favor thankfully.


Amazon has already fixed the potentially deadly Alexa error. Or so they say? The machines are coming!!


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