It was a challenge for her.

Amazon was forced to update Alexa following the daring act of a 10-year old girl to insert a penny into an electric outlet.

The voice assistant had been asked by the child to suggest a challenge. It suggested that she plug in a phone charger approximately halfway into a wall outlet and then touch a penny to its exposed prongs.

Kristin Livdahl (the girl's mother) said that the little girl screamed "No Alexa!" After hearing the potentially fatal instructions, she screamed "No, Alexa!"

OMFG Alexa, my 10 year old asked Alexa on her Echo for a challenge. She gave me this answer. pic.twitter.com/HgGgrLbdS8

-- Kristin Livdahl (@klivdahl) December 26, 2021

"We did some physical challenges like rolling over and laying down with a shoe on our feet. This was from a YouTube teacher in physical education. According to BBC, it was bad weather outside. She just wanted another one.

The "penny challenge" is one of many dares that have circulated on TikTok in the past year.

Officials from the Fire Department warn that this could cause a loss of power, start a fire or cost participants their fingers or hands.

Amazon stated that it immediately corrected the "error" in its system.

It stated that Alexa was designed to give accurate, relevant and useful information to customers.

"As soon we realized this error, we quickly took action to correct it."

Alexa's dare was not followed by the child, her mother stating that she was too smart to do anything like that.

Kristin said, "I was there when it happened" and that they had a good conversation about not trusting anything on the internet or Alexa.

Gary Marcus, an artificial intelligence expert, said that the incident showed how AI systems lack common sense.

He stated that "No current AI is even remotely close to understanding the daily physical and psychological world."

"What we have is an approximation of intelligence. It's not the real deal. As such, it won't be trusted." Before we can trust AI, we will need to make fundamental advances. Not just more data.

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Title: Alexa Tells 10-Year-Old to Stick a Penny in Live Electrical Outlet
Sourced From: toofab.com/2021/12/29/alexa-tells-10-year-old-to-stick-a-penny-in-live-electrical-outlet/
Published Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2021 17:24:47 +0000

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