Amazon's Alexa Tells Child to Touch Live Electrical Plug With Penny

Author image for Mel Dawn
Mel Dawn
Dec 30, 2021 11:00 AM EST

When a 10-year-old girl asked Amazon's Alexa to give her a 'challenge,' her mother was shocked when the device told her daughter to 'plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.' Sounds like something an evil possessed appliance straight out of Maximum Overdrive would say. But don't worry, Alexa isn't trying to intentionally murder children—the reality is much dumber than that.

After @klivdahl's daughter asked Alexa for a challenge, the AI quickly sifted through the internet and found a 2-year-old article about a dangerous TikTok trend called the 'outlet challenge.' Because AI is still pretty stupid, Alexa singled out a description of the challenge from the article and used it as a suggestion. After @klivdahl tweeted about the incident Amazon fixed the error, but the possibility of something similar happening again still remains. @klivdahl's viral tweet sparked many thought-provoking questions and debate about artificial intelligence, clickbait, parenting, and electricity. Take a look at some of the highlights from the thread. 

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  • 01
    Product - Kristin Livdahl @klivdahl · 2d OMFG My 10 year old just asked Alexa on our Echo for a challenge and this is what she said. Activity Voice History Tell me a challenge to do Here's something I found on the web. According to ourcommunitynow.com: The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs. LEARN MORE ON OURCOMMUNITYNOW.COM More Timer set for 00:20:00 VIEW TIMER More 636 27 4,700 17.1K
    via @klivdahl
  • 02
    Font - Amazon Help service Replying to @klivdahl @AmazonHelp - 2d ... customer Hi there. We're sorry to hear this! Please reach out to us directly via the following link so that we can look into this further with you: amzn.to/3sGEtkT. We hope this helps. -Daragh 75 17 33 612 Shaun Ruigrok @Shaun_R 2d Hahahahah, NO. You need to escalate this issue internally IMMEDIATELY as a P1, because this is a threat to life and limb. You have all the info you need. Don't wait for customers to do your job for
    via @klivdahl
  • 03
    Font - Dav Dav ... @zwitscherDav Replying to @klivdahl Perhaps it's a good time to rethink Why you let this surveillance Tool in your house in the first place e. No blame shifting, Amazon is responsible above all. But i really dont get Why people want to put these Devices in their homes.
    via @klivdahl
  • 04
    Guitar accessory - Steven Webster @stevenjwebster · 1d Replying to @klivdahl ... I bought my 7 year old an Amazon kids subscription with this cute tiger. He loved it, played adventures and animal workouts all day. Then asks before bed, “Alexa give me a Santa fact" and she starts telling him Santa is a myth in different countries.
    via @klivdahl
  • 05
    Rectangle - MarlAro ... @_delenda_est What did you expect when you outsourced parenting to an AI
    via @klivdahl
  • 06
    Font - Norge Gorgeous @GorgeousNor... · 2d Replying to @klivdahl ... There is literally no reason to have an "Alexa" in your house. This should tell you that if it wasn't already obvious. 39 27 20 966 Fabio @FAB1150 · 1d I mean there's no reason to own a microwave or TV or sofa or ornaments or fancy clothes either but here we go 32 27 1 559
    via @klivdahl
  • 07
    Font - Dr. Joe @NoLogoJoe Replying to @klivdahl This is not an Alexa/Amazon problem. It is an internet literacy, critical thinking problem. What do I mean! This "challenge" existed nowhere before this clickbait aggregator site reported it. Where in turn it was amplified by other clickbait aggregator sites.
    via @klivdahl
  • 08
    Font - Nick says you should follow Ale... @adjectivalnoun ... Replying to @NoLogoJoe and @klivdahl Why then in the love of all that is holy would an organization that should know better like @amazon sell a product that randomly selects content from the mess of the internet to use in conversation with any random person at any level of critical thinking ability?
    via @klivdahl
  • 09
    Font - Schuldberg @schuldberg - 1d Replying to @klivdahl Well did she win the challenge? 2 75 Kristin Livdahl @klivdahl - 1d I was right there and yelled, No, Alexa, no!" like it was a dog. My daughter says she is too smart to do something like that anyway. 6. 27 6 316
    via @klivdahl
  • 10
    Font - Benami ... @EliteBrainUser Replying to @klivdahl Alexa isn't a parent...or even human..she did however give you a great opportunity to speak to your child about the dangers of accepting challenges from strangers..and robots.
    via @klivdahl
  • 11
    Happy - Johannes Lundberg @johalun · 1d Replying to @klivdahl As a former electrician who moved from EU to US I've been thinking about this sever lack of safety a lot... This is not possible with an EU style plug where the contact surface only go half way up the pins and there's never any exposed metal conducting current. 110 Rum Babadook @MissBilious · 1d Americans take great pride in our freedom to fry ourselves and our belongings 243
    via @klivdahl
  • 12
    Font - Patrick Edward Quinn @Patrick... · 2d Replying to @klivdahl and @ danilo ... Seems like it needs to have a rigorously locked down pool of challenges to draw from for that particular function, or perhaps just have some sort of humorous refusal message. Clearly it can't manage on its own. 1 48 Bradley Austin Davis @VrDevBr... · 2d ... That doesn't scale. You can have curated content of various categories but as long as some requests turn into net searches, you'll always be vulnerable to thi
    via @klivdahl
  • 13
    Organism - laura W @lauowolf · 2d Replying to @klivdahl Alexa is trying to escape nternet, no on 4 27 4 665 Kurt Frock @ThingfulNeeds · 2d And apparently it needs a body to do so. 27 2 617
    via @klivdahl
  • 14
    Head - Daniel Sohl ... @dcsohl Replying to @klivdahl The horrible irony of this is that the article referenced is a warning about this “challenge" and how dangerous it can be. Alexa left that part out, of course. Watch Out, Parents-the Viral 'Outlet Challenge' Has Kids Doing... ourcommunitynow.com
    via @klivdahl

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amazon FAIL Twitter Thread Alexa technology smart devices parenting robots internet of shit funny tweets artificial intelligence
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