TV News Broadcast Accidentally Activates Alexa, Initiates Orders (cw6sandiego.com)

ShaunC writes: In San Diego, TV news anchor Jim Patton was covering a separate story about a child who accidentally ordered a doll house using her family's Echo. Commenting on the story, Patton said "I love the little girl, saying 'Alexa ordered me a dollhouse.'" Viewers across San Diego reported that in response to the news anchor's spoken words, their own Echo devices activated and tried to order doll houses from Amazon. Amazon says that anyone whose Echo inadvertently ordered a physical item can return it at no charge.
Meanwhile, Engadget reports that a team of Twitch streamers has convinced one Google Home device to answer questions from another, and they're livestreaming the surreal conversation.

Comments

Dilbert predicted this

[Anonymous Coward]

Much as I think Scott Adams has turned batsh!t crazy recently, he did predict this way back in 1994

http://dilbert.com/strip/1994-04-24

Re:Dilbert predicted this

[meerling]

In the early 80s at the PC group meeting, a rep came in to show off their voice command software.
He set it up, and then from the crowd, someone said "Format C: Enter", followed by another voice "Yes".
Sure enough, it formatted the entire drive, and the rep had a much shorter presentation than he was expecting, but even he had to admit, the demonstration, though short, was very effective.

Re:Dilbert predicted this

[Anonymous Coward]

No such event ever occurred.

Re: Dilbert predicted this

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi Scott.

Re:Dilbert predicted this

[93 Escort Wagon]

Dilbert has made him rich - so the correct term is "batshit eccentric".

Re:Dilbert predicted this

[PopeRatzo]

Naaah, what was really crazy was thinking that an ex-stoner "community organizer" raised by Communists, who'd never been in charge of a damn thing his entire life, could be a successful President.

And yet, he leaves office with the highest approval rating of any post-war president.

I think Scott Adams would call this "cognitive dissonance".

Re:Dilbert predicted this

[quenda]

It did too. I was there, and the rep's name was Craig Shergold.

Re:Dilbert predicted this

[Darinbob]

Problem is too many people just believe the made up stuff from Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and the like, and will believe the most bizarre rumors about Obama. As in that he's actively working to remove borders between the US, Canada, and Mexico, or that there was literally zero immigration between the 30s and the 50s. They don't have the evidence to back this up but they do believe whatever these people say on the air. So it's no wonder that people think Obama was raised by communists, is a muslim, was born in Kenya, etc, because American no longer bother to use their brains, it is a vestigial organ. Obama has deported more people than any other president and yet so many are firmly convinced that he's trying to get illegal immigration to increase. What's even more bizarre is that someone who's solidly right wing conservative can deny these conspiracy theories and then get shouted down for being a liberal who's trying to steal their guns, they're stuck to a viewpoint that you must be 100% in agreement with them or else you are an enemy. And they'll defend all this by saying "all mass media lies" which is their way of saying that all evidence must be ignored and rely only on your gut instincts. I've never seen America so weird before, and I lived in the 60s.

Re:Dilbert predicted this

[Darinbob]

Another problem with American voters is that so many only bother to vote for the president. So in midterm elections they stay home and then are baffled the the opposition inevitably wins big in the house. Doesn't matter if the president is Democrat or Republican, midterms very often go the opposite direction. Congress has much more power than the president and yet the same fools get reelected over and over.

Re:Well that's a hell of a security hole.

[sumdumass]

It's more like the little girl told the echo what it wanted for Christmas or something and the news caster paraphrased.

In case he wasn't though, Amazon's own voice ordering fact page says that when you attempt to order something it searches

Your order history - only Prime-eligible items.
Amazon's Choice - Amazon's Choice items are highly rated, well-priced products that are available to order immediately.
Prime-eligible items - including delivery by Prime Now for eligible items.

in an attempt to find/idntify what you ordered. If a dollhouse was on the Amazon's Choice list, it would have been ordered under this policy.

Well bugger me!

[quenda]

Well bugger me! ... No! No! Cancel! ...

Alexa 7.0 robotic assistant will need a safe word.

Re:How has he turned crazy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Scott Adams predicted Trump would win in a landslide.

I realize nuance isn't important to people like you, but it is an important distinction since it implies less a careful analysis of the situation and more a wild-ass guess. But, hey, lets just start following anyone that happened to be (kind of) right that one time, even if they just got lucky. That's the true path to success.

puzzled

[buss_error]

What gives me pause - is it really such an inconvenience to open a browser and, like, click a single button? I'm no technophobe, but I am against the misapplication of technology. I guess Alexia and Siri and the like are OK if one is a paraplegic or otherwise unable to use their hands.

Other than my grand nieces shouting cute things at Siri to see what happens... it simply strikes me as flash and little substance.

Re:Well that's a hell of a security hole.

[quenda]

Safe bet that Amazon will be rushing some sort of patch on that ASAP

Patch!? Hell no, they've rushed out a patent - the no-click patent. Everyone else will be prevented from doing this, which is some consolation.

All of this voice stuff gives me the willies.

[ScentCone]

Had Siri enabled (while charging) a while back, sitting next to the TV. Watching a history program about the Renaissance. Suddenly the phone says, "OK. Here's what I've found about troublesome clergy." Turned that feature off.

Re:What a coincidence

[hackwrench]

I was in a mental ward quite some time ago, (yes as a patient. I wanted to insist that I had a contract with Microsoft that did not exist and other bizarre things. I did not actually believe I had a contract with Microsoft, that would be crazy) where one of the other patients said "I am Napoleon." and the doc said, "How do you know you're Napoleon?" and the patient replied, "God told me." and another patient piped up, "I did not!"

Re:Funny Story

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

That headline reminds me of a problem the Jedi had in the Minora system

Okay, I like Star Wars but this comment hit my Nerd-O-Meter so hard that the needle broke off, went rocketing into the sky and was last seen punching a hole in one of Saturn's rings.

Re: How has he turned crazy?

[Z00L00K]

I think that one of the problems were that Trump and Hillary both were too similar and nobody really wanted any of them.

Re:Well that's a hell of a security hole.

[Darinbob]

Consumers love this stuff though, they cannot see anything wrong with the one-button-buy-without-approval until something like this happens. Seriously how lazy do fat Americans have to be that they need voice activated Amazon purchases because it takes too much energy to use the computer?

FALSE NEWS

[cdwiegand]

Anyone with an Alexa knows when you start an order it lists matching products and asks for verification.