Consumerist reports that Amazon.com has updated Alexa, the software of its Amazon Echo listening devices, in the wake of a viral video in which someone asks the device "Do you work for the CIA?" and it goes silent and dark. The updated software says "No, I work for Amazon."
The submitter found a video on Youtube in which a Google Home device responds "I've got to admit, I'm not sure" in answer to the same question, as well as a video showing the updated Alexa software going silent when asked "Is Amazon connected to the CIA?".
additional coverage:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @07:42PM
That proves that Amazon most likely programmed that bot to react in a certain way, given"the CIA test case."
Or... it has a hard time parsing the acronym "CIA."
Unlike FDA and FBI, the phonetic pronunciation of CIA sounds like two distinct words : See Eye Aye.
Should test it with something similarly ambiguous, like "ICU" or "RUA"