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Amazon’s Alexa tells 10-year-old to touch penny to exposed plug socket

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In an alarming incident Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, asked a 10-year-old girl to touch a live electrical plug with a penny.

The girl’s mother Kristin Livdahl, a US resident, tweeted about the incident on December 26, sharing a screenshot of the Alexa’s response via an Echo smart speaker to the girl’s question “tell me a challenge to do,” a BBC report said.

“The challenge is simple: Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs,” Alexa said.

Amazon said they have since resolved the issue. “Customer trust is at the center of everything we do and Alexa is designed to provide accurate, relevant, and helpful information to customers,” a spokesperson for Amazon told CNN in a statement.

“As soon as we became aware of this error, we quickly fixed it, and will continue to advance our systems to help prevent similar responses in the future,” the statement said.

The trend, which isknown as the penny challenge, emerged on social media platforms such as TikTok in 2020.

“You may have heard of the TikTok experiment involving a cell phone charger, a coin and an outlet,” Captain Brian Tanner, of the Provo Fire Department in Utah, said in a video posted in Jan. 2020 from the organization’s account on TikTok. “I’m telling you this is dangerous stuff, don’t do it,” Tanner added.

ARTICLE: PAUL MURDOCH 

MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE

PHOTO CREDITS: ARSTECHNICA.COM

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Paul Murdoch

Paul, 37, is from Scotland in the UK, but currently lives and works in Bangkok. Paul has worked in different industries such as telemarketing, retail, hospitality, farming, insurance, and teaching, where he works now. He teaches at an all-girls High School in Bangkok. “It’s a lot of work, but I love my job.” Paul has an active interest in politics. His reason for writing for FBA is to offer people the facts and allow them to make up their own minds. Whilst he believes opinion columns have their place, it is also important that people can have accurate news with no bias.

Paul, 37, is from Scotland in the UK, but currently lives and works in Bangkok. Paul has worked in different industries such as telemarketing, retail, hospitality, farming, insurance, and teaching, where he works now. He teaches at an all-girls High School in Bangkok. “It’s a lot of work, but I love my job.” Paul has an active interest in politics. His reason for writing for FBA is to offer people the facts and allow them to make up their own minds. Whilst he believes opinion columns have their place, it is also important that people can have accurate news with no bias.

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