SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday December 30 2018, @02:38PM (1 child)
I'm also here to say that, just like edIII, I've never used any of the popular social media apps. My main telephone is a landline, and my emergency mobile (cell) telephone is just that... a telephone. No camera, no GPS tracking, no frills, no worries. I don't feel the need to tell everyone what I had for breakfast, what I plan to do this evening, or catch up on the latest gossips of our so-called 'stars'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 30 2018, @03:40PM
What did you have for breakfast?