Amazon Echo.Andrew Hyde/Flickr
Who would have thought it? A smart assistant named Alexa, which is activated by invoking its name is causing trouble for owners who are also named Alexa. This is exactly what is happening among a select group of customers, who seem to be having a bit of trouble dealing with owning a machine that shares their name. More than that, it’s turning out that using smart assistants is like getting used to computers in the 80s.
Practically all smart assistants come with a few troublesome aspects, with unintended activation being one of the most annoying. When it comes to Apple’s Siri, for example, saying “Are you serious?” seems to activate it just as well as the official “Hey Siri” keyword. With Alexa, the problem appears more widespread because of just how common the name is, Tech Times reports.
The publication spoke to several people named Alexa, many of whom are very fond of the name, and they are not liking how Amazon Echo devices activate just because it was mentioned. Some of them brought up occasions such as when they are playing with their friends or just having other people in the house as examples of times when the devices would just turn on.
It’s not just limited to Alexa either since some of those with the name Alex and Alexis are also starting to complain about the same issues. Even worse, it would appear that the speaker doesn’t even need to be human for the devices to wake up as TV characters were actually able to place orders on Amazon through the glitch.
Clearly, Amazon still has a lot of kinks in the system that it needs to work out. As Business Insider also points out, getting used to the Echo devices and Alexa is like getting used to using computers back in the day when DOS was the main method of controlling the unit. There are some very specific lines that the users need to memorize before getting anything done.
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