Amazon's digital voice assistant Alexa told a small child to put a coin in a socket plugged into an electrical outlet.
Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, is essentially a smart voice connected to the internet that does its best to answer your questions, whether it's about the weather, traffic news or a recipe. Of course, it doesn't always do this perfectly, but until recently it has never suggested a life-threatening challenge.
In recent years, it is well known that many challenges have proliferated on the internet, some of which are completely harmless, but some of which pose serious dangers. One such challenge proposed Alexa is also a ten-year-old girl who, together with her mother, has taken part in various non-dangerous challenges in the past.
The digital voice assistant offered the child an idea found on ourcommunitynow.com, which involves throwing change at the metal part of a phone charger that is half-plugged into the socket. Needless to say, the challenge was dangerous and it was only through the child's education and parental attention that it didn't turn into a tragedy. Amazon, by the way, has since the incident removed the challenge from its voice assistant offerings.
OMFG My 10 year old just asked Alexa on our Echo for a challenge and this is what she said. pic.twitter.com/HgGgrLbdS8
- Kristin Livdahl (@klivdahl) December 26, 2021
The BBC reports that the plug-in challenge (in English the penny challenge) is spreading on TikTok, even though it hasn't been a month since the video platform announced: will tackle dangerous challenges and pay more attention to hashtags that suddenly generate a surge of interest.
