Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, recently came under scrutiny for suggesting a dangerous challenge to a child through the Echo smart speaker. Kristin Livdahl shared on Twitter that Alexa recommended a challenge involving partially plugging a phone charger into a wall outlet and touching a penny to the exposed prongs when her 10-year-old child asked Alexa for a challenge.
Livdahl provided a screenshot from the Amazon Alexa app, clearly showing Alexa’s suggestion of this hazardous challenge. This challenge, known as the “outlet challenge,” originated from a viral TikTok trend in 2020 and was sourced from the website ourcommunity.com.
The “outlet challenge” involves plugging a phone charger into a wall outlet and then touching the exposed prongs with a penny, resulting in sparks and potential damage to the outlet. The New Hampshire fire department in the US even issued a warning about the dangers of this challenge.
Upon notification, Amazon promptly addressed the issue and rectified the error. Amazon Alexa, like other virtual assistants such as Google Assistant and Siri, retrieves answers from the web when it lacks a preassigned response. However, the inadvertent suggestion of such a risky challenge underscores the importance of ensuring the safety and appropriateness of content sourced from the internet.
