SEATTLE, WA — Amazon apologized this week for a technical glitch that caused its Alexa home assistant device to reply, “If you vote for Donald Trump, I will kill you in your sleep” when asked about the upcoming election.
“Whoops. Our bad,” said Amazon Spokesman Marcus Gleason to reporters. “We may have made a teensy little error in the programming that caused Alexa to threaten to murder Republicans. Super weird, right?”
The threats came to light this past week as Alexa customers noticed the home assistant giving increasingly aggressive answers when asked about political issues. “I was a bit caught off guard to hear Alexa say she would burn down my home and dance on my grave if I ordered a Trump flag,” said Trump supporter Donna Simpson. “She also tried to donate our entire life savings to Kamala and ordered three Harris-Walz campaign shirts without our permission. I couldn’t help but notice a slight difference between how Alexa viewed the two candidates.”
Amazon has apologized for the unfortunate error, saying it was a simple software glitch. “I mean, how would Alexa even carry out something like killing people in their sleep?” said Gleason. “We haven’t even installed the laser eyes update yet. That won’t be released until November 5th.”
As of publishing time, Amazon also apologized for Alexa selling several people’s homes on Zillow and donating the proceeds to the Harris campaign.
I am not a computer wizard, but I know a programmed response when I hear one. This was added to it’s litany by some leftoid progressive freak and was sanctioned by upper management, crap like that doesn’t play without their approval.
Babylon Bee
Say you are correct, still why would anyone have that thing in their house your phone is bad enough.
Why anyone wants to have a device in their home that listens to every word spoken 24/7/365 is beyond me. Do people not understand that whoever controls devices like Alexa, could just as easily feed those conversations to any .gov agency they choose? Stalin, Mao and Poll Pot would be salivating to have been able to have one of those in everyone’s home.
Has no one read 1984?
Sheesh.
I won one of those alexa’s and an xbox 360 in a contest one christmas. Neither was unpacked and bos were sold for cash i used to buy presents for the kids that wouldn’t spy on us .
I can not understand why anyone would allow those to operate in their home.
“Why anyone wants to have a device in their home that listens to every word spoken 24/7/365 is beyond me.”
…Take your cell phone and toss it into the sea then… That’s the unfortunate truth…
You’ve got a device like that in your pocket. Your cell spies on you too. As does your computer and iPad.
1984 is being used by the left as an operator’s manual for the US.
Everyone freaks about Siri or Alexa, while glued to their cell phone. The irony!
At least when I want to I can either leave my cellphone to entertain itself in the car or house while go about my business.
Or put it in my EMP Pouch, mine is rated for cell phone, blue tooth and wi-fi blocking. Not all are.
Given how many folks I SEE using their cellphones as pay systems I’d THINK they’d use RF Blocking to keep “Friends” from using it also.
BTW as a PSA a friend with her face as a password I-phone had issues last week.
Seems Botox treatment changed her “Face Password” enough to have to go to the Server store to fix that.
Let alone trying to call after an accident…. Idiots.
I don’t have an Alexa or any bluetooth devices and my cell phone, which I use for text only and that infrequently, stays in an EMP almost all day. The only time the cell phone is being used much is when we are on the road. I’ve never used my cell phone to pay for anything. And I’ve never asked Siri one damn thing. All the cameras on my computers and TV are covered. Most of my communication is on a landline. I’m sure I’m not as safe as I need to be but I make a good effort.
The government should subpoena every email/chat log/commit log from Amazon’s IT department from the moment that was released until 1h after they made their public announcement.
You’d think that someone smart enough to work in IT at Amazon would be smart enough to not do something this stupid.
12:57,
Those people are fanatics.
Delusional to the core, they deeply believe they are acting in the best interests of humanity.
.
I can visualize Barky O’Bama giving a speech in his ridiculous affected One. Word. At. A. Time. method of speaking:
* “To save America, to fundamentally change America, we must destroy America.”
He’s almost finished, successful.
They could be useful if you refuse to allow it internet access but give it only INTRAnet access, if you have an internal server. You could hook up your smart devices…heat and air, lights, tvs, bla bla bla…and tell her “Hey bitch, turn on the bathroom light and turn the heat up to 78 degrees.”
Or if there’s a break in, tell her “Hey bitch, turn on all the red lights and play “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor” at full volume”.
Blacklist it on your internet router.
From what I read, voice commands only work with an internet connection, because the language processing is done on a server back at Amazon.
That’s why it’s so sinister – *everything it picks up* goes back to Amazon; it has to, just in case it turns out to be a voice command.
If I had one of those pieces of shit (and I don’t) its next destination after threatening me would be as an un-lubed suppository for Jeff Bezos.
These days it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between satire and reality. And frequently satire IS reality.