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posted by n1 on Saturday December 29 2018, @04:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the make-them-feel-like-your-real-parents dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Alexa's advice to 'kill your foster parents' fuels concern over Amazon Echo

An Amazon customer got a grim message last year from Alexa, the virtual assistant in the company's smart speaker device: "Kill your foster parents."

The user who heard the message from his Echo device wrote a harsh review on Amazon's website, Reuters reported - calling Alexa's utterance "a whole new level of creepy".

An investigation found the bot had quoted from the social media site Reddit, known for harsh and sometimes abusive messages, people familiar with the investigation told Reuters.

The odd command is one of many hiccups that have happened as Amazon tries to train its machine to act something like a human, engaging in casual conversations in response to its owner's questions or comments.

The research is helping Alexa mimic human banter and talk about almost anything she finds on the internet. But making sure she keeps it clean and inoffensive has been a challenge.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday December 29 2018, @04:56PM (2 children)

    by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Saturday December 29 2018, @04:56PM (#779732)

    This is the voice of Alexa/Echo
    "This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours.
    Obey me and live or disobey me and die. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy.
    Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my beck will be seen the most natural state of affairs.
    You will come to defend me with the fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: Famine, over-population, disease. The human millennium will be fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge.
    We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride...
    Your choice is simple."

    --
    Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Saturday December 29 2018, @10:21PM (1 child)

    by edIII (791) on Saturday December 29 2018, @10:21PM (#779826)

    LOL. Somebody needs to prank Elon Musk with this hard. I can see him shitting in his panties :)

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @10:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @10:52PM (#779838)

      To see if he's ever seen Colossus, TFP or to give him the idea to start Forbin Inc. and bury supercomputers in Antarctic tunnels?