Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, asked a 10-year-old girl to touch the ends of a half-plugged plug with a coin. Upon development, Amazon fixed the bug by updating its voice assistant.
The little girl’s mother, Kristin Livdahl, described what happened on Twitter:
“Previously on YouTube [beden eğitimi] We were watching and doing some physical challenges from your teacher, such as reaching and rolling with a shoe on your feet. The weather was bad outside. [Kızım] He just wanted to make another one.”
At the time, the Amazon Echo assistant offered a challenge he found on the internet, saying, “Plug a phone charger halfway into the outlet, then tap the exposed ends with a coin.”
Livdahl responded with a “No, Alexa, No!” He shouted that he intervened. He also said his daughter was “too smart to do such a thing”.
Amazon: We’ve updated Alexa
Amazon told the BBC they’ve updated Alexa to prevent the assistant from suggesting such activity in the future.
“Customer trust is at the heart of everything we do, and Alexa is designed to provide customers with accurate, relevant and helpful information,” Amazon said.
This dangerous activity, known as the “penny challenge”, started spreading on TikTok and other social media sites about a year ago.
Many metals conduct electricity, and plugging them into electrical outlets can cause electric shocks, fires, and other damage.
In England, Carlisle East Fire Chief Michael Clusker warned against this dangerous challenge in 2020, telling The Press, “I know you can lose your fingers, hands and arms.”
Fire officials in the US also opposed this so-called challenge.