Incident 55: Alexa Plays Pornography Instead of Kids Song

Description: An Amazon Echo Dot using the Amazon Alex software started to play pornographic results when a child asked it to play a song.

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Alleged: Amazon developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Children.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
55
Report Count
16
Incident Date
2016-12-30
Editors
Sean McGregor

CSETv0 Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Full Description

An Amazon Echo Dot using the Amazon Alex software started to play pornographic results when a child asked it to play a song. The child said "Alexa, play Tigger Tigger" and Alexa responded with “You want to hear a station for porn detected...hot chick amateur girl sexy" and began to make other pornographic references until the parents turned off the Dot.

Short Description

An Amazon Echo Dot using the Amazon Alex software started to play pornographic results when a child asked it to play a song.

Severity

Negligible

AI System Description

The Amazon Alexa personal assistant listens to voice commands, and either provides information or takes action (e.g. playing a song, turning on lights).

System Developer

Amazon

Sector of Deployment

Information and communication

Relevant AI functions

Perception, Cognition, Action

AI Techniques

voice recognition, natural language processing

AI Applications

AI personal assistant

Named Entities

Amazon

Technology Purveyor

Amazon

Beginning Date

12-2016

Ending Date

12-2016

Near Miss

Unclear/unknown

Intent

Accident

Lives Lost

No

Data Inputs

Voice commands

CSETv1 Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Harm Distribution Basis

none

Sector of Deployment

Arts, entertainment and recreation, information and communication

Kid Gets Amazon Echo Dot Alexa to Play Porn
nymag.com · 2016

After opening a new Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas, one family got an … interesting surprise when their kid sidled up to the device to ask it to play a song by holding the little robot in both hands and shouting into the microphone. It’s ver…

Shocking moment Amazon's Alexa starts spouting crude porno messages to toddler
thesun.co.uk · 2016

SHOCKING video has emerged showing Amazon’s Alexa bombarding a toddler with crude porno messages.

Footage shows a little boy talking into an Amazon Echo Dot gadget as family members watch on.

YouTube/f0t0b0y 4 Footage shows the little boy t…

Amazon's Alexa misunderstands boy's request and rattles off PORNOGRAPHIC phrases
dailymail.co.uk · 2016

A little boy got more than he bargained for when he asked his family's new Amazon Echo Dot to play him some of his favorite kid's songs.

A hilarious YouTube video sees a boy named William holding the smart speaker while asking the Alexa voi…

Amazon Alexa Makes It To Naughty List With NSFW Tirade In Front Of A Child
itechpost.com · 2016

Amazon Alexa Makes It To Naughty List With NSFW Tirade In Front Of A Child

Close

All he wanted was to hear a nursery song.

A YouTube video posted last Dec. 29 has become viral with 1.2 million views as of this writing. The video shows a lit…

consumerist.com · 2016

In what could either be an innocent mistake or a set-up by wise adults, Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa gave one toddler a very interesting answer to his request to hear a specific song.

“Alexa, play ‘Digger, Digger,'” the tyke tells an Ec…

Kid Asks Amazon Alexa To Play Something, Gets Porn Instead
cinemablend.com · 2017

Kid Asks Amazon Alexa To Play Something, Gets Porn Instead Corey Chichizola Random Article Blend There is no time like Christmas for kids. Essentially winning the lottery every year, it's a joy to see the children in our family anxiously aw…

Kid Asks A Digital Assistant For A Song, Gets Porn In Response
huffingtonpost.com.au · 2017

A family got a nasty surprise when their little boy asked Amazon's digital assistant 'Alexa' to play some of his favourite songs, with the device serving up porn suggestions instead of tunes.

The video posted on YouTube sees the adorable to…

Whoops, Alexa Plays Porn Instead of a Kids Song!
entrepreneur.com · 2017

In this NSFW video, Amazon put the "X" in Alexa when a child asked it to play his favorite song. (You'll want to wear headphones for this one, folks.)

January 3, 2017 1 min read

The description on this YouTube video posted by f0t0b0y reads,…

What is the Kid in the Alexa Video Asking to Hear Before Alexa Goes Wild? [VIDEO]
wkdq.com · 2017

If you haven't seen the funniest video to come out this past month, you must be living under a rock. This video shows a little kid asking Alexa to play a song, and Alexa goes rogue and starts making some very NSFW suggestions to the child!

Boy requests song from Amazon Alexa, but gets porn instead
10news.com · 2017

A video posted last week by YouTube user "F0t0b0y" has been viewed more than 7 million times showing a toddler requesting a song from an Amazon device only to get a raunchy response from the device.

The video titled "Amazon Alexa Gone Wild"…

Better watch what you say to Amazon Echo Dot: One toddler got an earful of vulgar porn phrases
lifesitenews.com · 2017

NewsPornography

SEATTLE, Washington, January 6, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Amazon's Echo Dot is a small, voice-command device that answers questions, plays music and sounds, and basically functions as a talking/playing encyclopedia, but parents …

Fails And Facepalms With Amazon’s Alexa: Don’t Let The Kids Near That Thing
inquisitr.com · 2017

So you thought AI is cool? So you thought you could have Alexa watch over your kid? Wait till that AI starts spewing dirty words and purchasing expensive toys for your kid.

CES 2017 was a flurry of crazy tech and this year, Amazon’s AI call…

‘Alexa, sort your life out’: when Amazon Echo goes rogue
theguardian.com · 2017

Amazon Echo is apparently always ready, always listening and always getting smarter. So goes the spiel about the sleek, black, voice-controlled speaker, Amazon’s bestselling product over Christmas, with millions now sold worldwide. The prob…

Amazon Echo’s Alexa is turning out to be a bad influence on our kids
sheknows.com · 2017

We can’t keep our kids away from our gadgets, and the new Amazon Echo, the online retail giant’s bestselling product over Christmas, is no exception.

If you don’t already know, Amazon Echo — now in millions of homes worldwide — is a voice-c…

How to Make Amazon's Alexa a Little More Kid-Friendly
digitaltrends.com · 2017

Share

Of the myriad descriptions being levied on Amazon’s Alexa “smart home” system, its creators probably weren’t expecting the phrase “parenting nightmare.” Yet that description has come up again and again as parents discover the new and …

Alexa fails: when virtual assistants go very, very wrong
verdict.co.uk · 2017

Luke is the deputy editor of Verdict. You can reach him at luke.christou@verdict.co.uk

Virtual assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Apple’s Siri, are supposed to make our busy lives slightly easier.

Rather than wasting valuable seconds sett…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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