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Alexa tells 10-year-old to touch penny to outlet — AI just got dangerous

Alexa tells 10-year-former to touch penny to outlet — AI merely got dangerous

Amazon Echo Dot with clock
(Epitome credit: Future)

Lost in all the other bad news this week effectually the Omicron variant, Amazon'due south Alexa really told a x-twelvemonth-one-time daughter to touch a penny to an exposed electric outlet.

When asked for a claiming by the child, Alexa said the following, co-ordinate to the mother, Kristin Livdahl, who posted Alexa'due south response on Twitter.

"Here's something I found on the spider web. According to ourcommunitynow.com: The claiming is simple: plug in a telephone charger virtually halfway into a wall outlet, then touch on a penny to the exposed prongs."

This is an extremely dangerous suggestion and is plainly based on a TikTok challenge that trended during 2020. As reported by CNBC, inserting metallic coins into a socket can result in violent electric shocks and fires. There have been reports of people losing fingers and easily from taking this challenge.

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The good news in this case is that the female parent says she "was correct there," and that no one attempted this claiming. Livdahl also said that "we had another good chat from the internet or Alexa."

If you wait at Alexa'southward concerning response, the source of the information is non Amazon itself merely is pulled from OurCommunityNow.com. That said, Amazon is still responsible because Alexa said the words. And I would hate to think what could have happened if the child had been solitary in that room at the fourth dimension.

As reported by CNN, Amazon says it has since resolved the fault and provided a predictable statement:

"Customer trust is at the middle of everything we do and Alexa is designed to provide authentic, relevant, and helpful information to customers. As soon as nosotros became aware of this mistake, we quickly stock-still it, and will proceed to advance our systems to help prevent similar responses in the time to come."

That doesn't get far plenty. How did Amazon allow this advice to become through in the outset place? And what sort of vetting if any is washed for the safety and accuracy of advice that's coming from third parties? The "here's something I found on the web" disclaimer doesn't absolve Amazon of responsibility.

To be off-white, at that place are lots of great and useful Alexa skills, simply I would strongly suggest that Amazon permit users to disable Alexa suggestions found on the spider web altogether. And I also recall that Amazon should outline the exact steps information technology took to correct this issue and what it's doing to preclude any situations similar this in the future.

Amazon already sells Echo devices designed for kids with fun designs similar tigers and pandas, and they come with parental controls built in. Merely in many households Alexa speakers are establish in common areas where anyone tin speak to the assistant and get potentially dangerous communication.

My 14-year-old own son ofttimes uses Alexa to play various games, such as Guess Who, Jeopardy, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and xx Questions. And I'g usually within earshot, but non e'er.

This incident makes me wonder if Amazon should give parents the option of limiting the voice to just the parent using voice match technology. Or at the very least I'd like to see much more than transparency around what Amazon is doing to enhance kid and user safe within Alexa.

I don't know about you, but to me this raises serious questions about trust not just in Alexa but AI in general.

Mark Spoonauer is the global editor in chief of Tom's Guide and has covered applied science for almost 20 years. In improver to overseeing the direction of Tom'due south Guide, Marker specializes in covering all things mobile, having reviewed dozens of smartphones and other gadgets. He has spoken at key industry events and appears regularly on Goggle box to discuss the latest trends. Mark was previously editor in chief of Laptop Mag, and his work has appeared in Wired, Popular Science and Inc. Follow him on Twitter at @mspoonauer.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/alexa-tells-10-year-old-to-touch-penny-to-outlet

Posted by: arellanothavent.blogspot.com

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