The future belongs to AI-powered devices that will play music and party on their own when we're not there.
At least that's the takeaway from a curious/disturbing incident involving a German guy in Hamburg.
While home assistant devices like Alexa need a hotword in order to switch on, the one belonging to Oliver Haberstroh decided to have a rave at 1:50 a.m. Friday night/Saturday morning, while he was away.
"I was perfectly happy with your service and Alexa," Haberstroh wrote on Amazon's German Facebook page. "However, since Friday night the relationship between Alexa and me has taken a turn around. You could say 'it is complicated' [now] and things have gone so far that we now unfortunately have to go our separate ways."
"While I was very relaxed in the Reeperbahn in Hamburg and enjoying a beer, Alexa managed on its own, without command and without me using my mobile phone (Spotify), to switch on at full volume and enjoy a party in my apartment."
"She decided to have it at a very unfavourable time, between 1.50am and 3.00am."
Frustrated neighbours alerted police, which broke into the apartment and silenced Alexa, pulling out the plug. Then, they changed the door lock.
When Haberstroh arrived at home, he found a new lock and had to get new keys at police station — along with an expensive locksmith bill.
"When I asked Alexa how we could stay together and whether she could pay me back the costs, all I got was a dry 'I couldn't find any answer to the question'," he added.
Mashable has contacted Amazon for comment.