Alexa challenges a 10-year-old girl to touch a live plug with a coin...
Even technology has its limits...
As we move more and more into a world that is reliant on technology, there is more reason to question everything and anything. Sometimes as parents we can become complacent and stop challenging things.
Comfort and complacency can be dangerous for us in the long run. It stops us from questioning things and being more aware of how things work. And as the saying about 'assumptions' goes, we would hate the consequences to be dire.
On that note, a recent incident with an Alexa voice assistant has us re-thinking the open and trusting nature that we have for AI tech. Of course, we understand that nothing mechanical can ever be 100% reliable.
But it's scary to think that something that we are using for assistance, can potentially harm our family. A 10-year-old girl asked Alexa for a "challenge to do" and things went south when Alexa responded with a challenge that was harmful.
"Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs." This is what the speaker said to her. "Amazon said it fixed the error as soon as the company became aware of it. Customer trust is at the centre of everything we do and Alexa is designed to provide accurate, relevant, and helpful information to customers" (BBC)
We were doing some physical challenges, like laying down and rolling over holding a shoe on your foot, from a [physical education] teacher on YouTube earlier. Bad weather outside. She just wanted another one.
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Luckily, the 10-year-old was too smart to engage in this challenge that Alexa said it found on the web. The penny challenge started circulating on TikTok and other social media platforms in 2020.
We are just happy that this child knew better!
Image Courtesy of Unsplash Website