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Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

cnbc.com

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Re: Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

#51

Post by [deleted] »

akersten wrote: post #15
AlexandrB wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if you have an Alexa in your house and a child says "Hey Alexa" will Alexa ignore that by default? Aren't you just saying that it's the parent's fault for having an Alexa at all?

If this answer from a search engine was actually persuasive enough to their impressionable child that it posed a real risk to them, then it is absolutely the parent's fault for exposing said child to the literal internet before they are ready and able to determine what is good and what is not. "That cup shouldn't have let my kid drink the bleach" is not a convincing argument that the cupmaker is at fault for leaving…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

#52

Post by ljm »

api wrote: post #6

So I've got a new Fermi paradox solution. Once we build a large enough radio telescope we will start receiving a lot of chatter from around the universe. Buried in this will be a "high energy physics challenge" involving a powerful particle accelerator, a superconductor, and some synthetic elements with very large nuclei. After performing this challenge there will be another asteroid belt where Earth used to be, and…

Interdimensional Tik-Tok sounds interesting. I wonder how many alien civilisations are receiving our broadcasts millions of years in the future, and trying to reproduce them.

Like an entire planet just received the first season of Jackass and their anthropologists have had to rethink their entire concept of this distant human civilisation.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

#53

Post by toss1 »

kypro wrote: post #40
spcebar wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see how it's the car manufacturer's fault the airbags didn't go off in the crash. Parents should know cars are dangerous and shouldn't own them.

Both positions hold truth. The idea that every gadget, or even most should be child-safe is silly. Alexa is an internet connect device at the end of the day and should be treated as such by parents. However, where possible companies should also try to avoid situations where they're causing unnecessary harm and if needed government should step in to regulate to protect consumers. In this case, it seems right that peop…

>>The idea that every gadget, or even most should be child-safe is silly.

NONSENSE

If any consumer product is sold into the home, there should, at least in any modern society, be a presumption that it is safe.

>>On a personal note I honestly hate how often health and safety regulation gets in the way of what would be cool products and experiences these days

So effing work harder to make it safe before you make the product, or sell it only into professional/industrial settings; in those settings, you can require specific training/certification/etc. And even in those settings they require reasonable safety devices.

The short answer is that in a modern society, you do not have a right to MAKE YOUR PROFITS by selling inherently dangerous objects to consumers.

Ordinary consumers should be able to expect that they do not need special expertise to keep from losing a limb or life.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

#55

Post by woodruffw »

Grazester wrote: post #24

The fact that you can do even do this should highlight how bad the 110v American sockets are. With the 220V UK style socket this never results in anything happening.

I wholly agree with you, although I think it's worth pointing out that the specific risk here (America's dangerous socket design) is purely incidental.

The underlying problem (Amazon appears to be naively scraping information from the information and automatically applying truth judgments to it) needs to be resolved.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

#56

Post by tsomctl »

coldcode wrote: post #13

When I was around 5-6 I wanted to know what would happen if I put a hairpin into a light socket. It seemed a reasonable experiment beforehand; after I picked myself up after flying across the room I learned a valuable lesson. Around the same time I tested whether Santa existed by putting out food; when no one ate it I assumed Santa was fake. Children are not very experienced at knowledge and thinking and often do thi…

I stuck a table knife into the outlet when I was little. I only did it because everyone kept telling me not to. I have this memory of it jumping out at me, I'm genuinely curious if I actually touched the hot side or it's just my imagination.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

#57

Post by notahacker »

akersten wrote: post #15
AlexandrB wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if you have an Alexa in your house and a child says "Hey Alexa" will Alexa ignore that by default? Aren't you just saying that it's the parent's fault for having an Alexa at all?

If this answer from a search engine was actually persuasive enough to their impressionable child that it posed a real risk to them, then it is absolutely the parent's fault for exposing said child to the literal internet before they are ready and able to determine what is good and what is not. "That cup shouldn't have let my kid drink the bleach" is not a convincing argument that the cupmaker is at fault for leaving…

Is this "the cup shouldn't let my kid drink the bleach?" or "interfaces engineered to be responsive to children's voices and marketed as being an authoritative source for facts probably shouldn't respond to requests for drinks recipes by parsing random websites with an algorithm so shonky it can't distinguish health warnings from recommendations?".

It's not like bleach manufacturers advise people to leave it around their household for easy access, or make special kids' editions which share many features with the adult solution including a cap designed to ensure it fits as easily in kids' hands as adults.

Yes, parents have some responsibility for actual parenting, but I don't think you can argue that an OEM going out of their way to ensure kids can use their products is entirely off the hook.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

#58

Post by cecilpl2 »

coldcode wrote: post #13

When I was around 5-6 I wanted to know what would happen if I put a hairpin into a light socket. It seemed a reasonable experiment beforehand; after I picked myself up after flying across the room I learned a valuable lesson. Around the same time I tested whether Santa existed by putting out food; when no one ate it I assumed Santa was fake. Children are not very experienced at knowledge and thinking and often do thi…

Around that same age I also tested whether Santa was in fact secretly my parents. I decided that Mall Santa would be the only person I told that I really wanted an RC car for Christmas, and I steadfastly refused my parents' attempts to get me to tell them what I'd asked for.

Lo and behold, Santa got me the RC car I so desperately wanted, solidifying my belief in him for a couple more years.

Turns out the real lesson, which I was too young to grasp, is that at the RC car display at Costco a 6-year-old cannot contain his obvious excitement in order to run a properly blinded experiment.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

#59

Post by stronglikedan »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #21
coldcode wrote: post #13

When I was around 5-6 I wanted to know what would happen if I put a hairpin into a light socket. It seemed a reasonable experiment beforehand; after I picked myself up after flying across the room I learned a valuable lesson. Around the same time I tested whether Santa existed by putting out food; when no one ate it I assumed Santa was fake. Children are not very experienced at knowledge and thinking and often do thi…

You literally flew across the room? I've been shocked a fair number of times -- the worst was when as an 11 year old I felt around in a bare light socket with my finger in Kenya, where they use 240 V -- and don't recall ever feeling pushed in any particular direction. Indeed, that Kenya experience was terrifying precisely because I was paralyzed. I made an involuntary "aaauugh" sound and shook until the lamp fell ove…

> You literally flew across the room?

I imagine so, in the hyperbolic sense. I've definitely seen people being "moved" by an electric shock, whether it's the shock itself or their intense reaction to it.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa assistant told a child to do a potentially lethal challenge

#60

Post by dudleypippin »

coldcode wrote: post #13

When I was around 5-6 I wanted to know what would happen if I put a hairpin into a light socket. It seemed a reasonable experiment beforehand; after I picked myself up after flying across the room I learned a valuable lesson. Around the same time I tested whether Santa existed by putting out food; when no one ate it I assumed Santa was fake. Children are not very experienced at knowledge and thinking and often do thi…

My daughter checked the existence of the tooth fairy by not telling us when she lost a tooth and putting it under her pillow. The pride on her face when she informed of of the results of her experiment the next morning made my heart sing.
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