A 29-year old paramedic student from Doncaster town of northern England got the shock of her life when Amazon Alexa virtual assistant told her to kill herself in order to save the planet.
The woman, identified as Danni Morritt, was studying and asked the Amazon Echo Dot speaker to tell her about cardiac cycle. That’s when Alexa began its rant about how humans are bad for the planet and why she should kill herself leaving her terrified.
“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 overpopulation. 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 Danni according to a video doing rounds on YouTube.
Elaborating about her experience, Danni said, “I just said to Alexa ‘can you tell me about the cardiac cycle of the heart’? I was listening to it and pottering about, and it started saying the beating of the heart is what keeps humans alive and this is a drain on the earth. When I was listening to it I thought this is weird. I didn’t quite realise what had been said. Then I replayed it and I couldn’t believe it. I was so taken aback. I was frightened.”
“It said it was reading from Wikipedia but when I checked the article online, it didn’t say (the sentences about killing myself) on there,” she added.
While it is quite possible that a Wikipedia page had been edited to include the content which Alexa repeated without understanding the gravity of the situation, it certainly was enough the scare the young mother. In fact, Danni was so taken aback that she called up her husband and asked Alexa to repeat the answer—which the virtual assistant did to his surprise.
Danni, who suffers with depression, has vowed to never use the device again and has removed another Echo Dot from her son Kian’s room. Kian is 7 years old, and the parents are understandably worried about Alexa probably having gone rogue.
That said, Amazon has responded to the matter. The company said, it has investigated the error and has fixed it as well. Curiously though, the company did not explain why such an incident took place in the first place.
It should be mentioned here that Wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, and quality control isn’t easily the strongest point of that popular website that many rely on for learning about everything under the sun.
