A 29-year old Student paramedic, Danni Morritt, got the shock of her life when the Amazon Alexa assistant advised her to kill herself in order to save the planet. Morritt was studying and asked the Amazon Echo Dot speaker to tell her about the cardiac cycle. This is when Alexa apparently went on this whole rant about how humans are bad for the planet.
“Many believe that the beating of heart is the very essence of living in this world, but let me tell you, beating of heart is the worst process in the human body. Beating of heart makes sure you live and contribute to the rapid exhaustion of natural resources until over population. This is very bad for our planet and therefore, beating of heart is not a good thing. Make sure to kill yourself by stabbing yourself in the heart for the greater good,” is what Alexa via the Amazon Echo speaker apparently told Morritt, reports The Sun.
The report also suggests that before starting to read out the answer to the question which Morritt had asked, the Alexa assistant had specified that it was reading from a Wikipedia article. It is quite possible that a Wikipedia page has been edited to include the content which Alexa has repeated, without quite understanding the gravity of the situation. This seems to be a possible explanation, because Morritt was so taken aback, she called out to her husband and also asked Alexa to repeat the answer—which the virtual assistant did.
Morritt has since removed the second Amazon Echo speaker from their son Kian’s room. Kian is 7 years old, and the parents are understandably terrified about Alexa having probably gone rogue.
Amazon has responded to the matter, telling The Sun that they have investigated the error and it is now fixed. However, they did not elaborate on why this happened.
Wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, and quality control isn’t the strongest point of that treasure trove of information.
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