Amazon fixes issue after Alexa 'challenges' 10-year-old to put coin in plug socket: Report

The multinational company Amazon updated its Alexa voice assistant after it "challenged" a 10-year-old girl to place a coin on an exposed electrical socket. The virtual assistant AI technology, Amazon Alexa, gave the suggestion after the girl asked it for a "challenge to do," reported BBC. On December 27, Kristin Livdahl, the girl's mother, shared a screenshot of her daughter's "strange interaction" with the Echo smart speaker. She posted the screenshot of the device's activity log on Twitter.

"Connect a phone charger about halfway into a wall socket, then put a penny on the exposed prongs," the smart speaker said to the girl. "OMFG My 10-year-old just asked Alexa on our Echo for a challenge and this is what she said, [sic]," Livdahl wrote on Twitter while sharing the screenshot. Meanwhile, Amazon stated that it corrected the problem as soon as it was made aware of it. "Customer trust is at the cornerstone of everything we do, and Alexa is built to provide customers with accurate, relevant, and useful information, Amazon said in a statement as reported by the British news outlet.

"The penny challenge" widely circulated last year on social media

Around a year ago, the dangerous activity, known as "the penny challenge," started circulating on TikTok and other social media websites. Inserting metals into live electrical sockets can result in electric shocks, fires, and other hazards. The so-called challenge was also vehemently opposed by the fire officials in the United States. Meanwhile, in the month of September, Amazon also introduced a new feature called "Adaptive Volume" in order to make Alexa respond louder upon detecting the user in a noisy environment.

Image: Unsplash/Representative