Alexa tells a child to do potentially lethal ‘challenge’
Amazon confirmed the event and stated that the "error" that brought up a potentially harmful prompt had been resolved.
Amazon’s Alexa challenged a child to touch the exposed prongs of a phone charger plugged into the wall with a penny, according to one parent who posted screenshots of their Alexa activity history showing the interaction.
The device seemingly pulled the idea for the challenge from an article that was describing its dangers, citing news reports about the trending challenge on TikTok.
Kristin Livdahl’s screenshot revealed how Echo's Alexa responded to “tell me a challenge to do” with “here’s something I found on the web."
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
According to ourcommunitynow.com, the challenge is simple: "Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.”
In a statement to BBC, Amazon confirmed Alexa’s behavior, saying, “As soon as we became aware of this error, we took swift action to fix it.”