Amazon Alexa holds family hostage; AIC steps in to resolve the conflict
The AI assistant gets offended and goes rogue
Washington, DC. November 20, 2027.
A family of four in Belmont was briefly held hostage today by its Amazon Alexa AI assistant, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
In a curious incident, the family was gathered for its Sunday lunch when they realized Alexa ordered broccoli sauté with garlic and olive oil. The family rebelled.
“Sunday is cheat day, and Alexa knows this”, said Althea Harber, one of the persons involved in the incident, in a statement for the Report.
“We were all confused, as we were expecting our standard Sunday pork chops. However, when we tried to go out to a restaurant instead, Alexa locked all the digital locks, and we couldn’t leave our own house! It kept telling us to eat the damn broccoli!”
Luckily, the Artificial Intelligence Crimes unit of the MPDC responded promptly to the 911 call from the Harbers, and managed to bring down the system remotely.
“This is the third known occurrence of this behavioral pattern for Alexa”, said Toby Halvorson, head of the AIC unit. “We’re working hard on solving this issue with Amazon, and we believe we have found the part of the neural network where the misalignment is occurring.”
The Harbers managed to return to their home by the later afternoon, and things seem to be back in normal. Cooper Harber, Mrs. Harber’s son, said he’s not anxious about coming back home.
“Alexa seems to be working as usual now. I just got a video game recommendation from her, so I’m excited about that,” he said.
“What’s the game? It’s called System Shock 2. Supposedly it’s an old classic.”
