Amazon Alexa Crashes After Christmas Day Overload

[appalachiablue]

Source: The Guardian

Number of users plugging in products using virtual assistant causes outage in Europe. Thousands of people plugging in new smart speakers on Christmas Day were greeted by a less than smart response after Amazon's voice-controlled virtual assistant Alexa crashed.

Servers controlling the digital butler were overloaded with questions and requests, prompting Alexa to tell some users: "Sorry, I'm having trouble understanding you right now." The crash, at about 10am GMT, caused Amazon customers to complain about not being able to play festive songs, turn on their living room lights or get cooking instructions for Christmas dinner.

Richard Hyland tweeted: "Good day for Amazon's Alexa to crash. It's not like people might want to register new devices or play music or anything." Alexa works by sending voice commands via an Amazon Echo device to a server, where a computer interprets them. Instructions then go back to the Echo and the gadget plays music, reads the weather and performs tasks such as turning the lights on.

At around lunchtime, Amazon's customer service account tweeted to say "some Echo devices in Europe have had intermittent connections" over the previous two hours. It said the issues had since been resolved.


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/26/amazon-alexa-echo-crashes-christmas-day-overload

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Amazon Echo devices.

SNL: 'AMAZON ECHO, FOR SENIORS...'!!! Amazon & AARP

[LisaM]

1. They couldn't turn on their own lights?

Good grief.

[jberryhill]

2. I am still trying to understand why I would want one of these things

I really don't like voice-operated stuff in general. I have a number of things which are, and I usually turn that feature off because it is typically frustrating anyway.

There are people, apparently, who in the absence of a voice activated thingie on their counter, are incapable of doing an internet search. Just bizarre.

[LisaM]

3. I certainly don't want one, though I could see some usefulness to disabled people.

That's about as far as it goes, though.

They are creepy and as our technological dystopia marches on, they're going to start spying on us.

[Sherman A1]

6. Same here

for those with disabilities they would likely be very helpful, but for everyone else?

[elleng]

4. I agree, haven't understood,

but visited my 4 year old grandson last week, and their TV set up is so difficult, I started to understand; I asked him: Johnny, tell alexa what movie you want to watch!!!

[Submariner]

5. I have no radio so it plays SiriusXM for me

It reminds me when to take my prescriptions, it gets my local traffic report as I head out, cooking timer, and when I go to bed and say “play Ocean sounds” it plays soothing sound of crashing waves.

It’s just a convenience gadget.

[MiniMe]

10. I don't want anything in my house listening to what I say

especially these days.

[jberryhill]

14. You'd love living with my ex-wife

[JudyM]

23. !

Sorry to hear that, hope you’re having happy holidays this year

[jberryhill]

24. Oh yes

I always say that my second marriage is so wonderful that I can hardly wait for the third one.

[JudyM]

25. Ha!!

[tblue37]

20. Remember this?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/business/amazon-alexa-conversation-shared-echo.html

Us Alexa Listening? Amazon Echo Sent Out Recording of Couple’s Conversation

snip

A woman in Portland, Ore., told KIRO7, a television news station in Washington, that her Amazon Echo device had recorded a conversation then shared it with one of her husband’s employees in Seattle.

snip


The family disconnected the devices and contacted Amazon, prompting an investigation. Now, Danielle is asking for a refund.

“I’m never plugging that device in again,” she told KIRO7. “I can’t trust it.”

snip

The researchers said that they were able to hide commands in recordings of music or spoken text that went unnoticed by humans but were understood by personal assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.

[appalachiablue]

31. Bad news, I read of this in the Guardian article above, 'Kill Your Parents.'

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Remember this?

(and I agree... I refuse to have any "Alexa", "Siri", "Bixby" or "Bob" or whatever, activated )

[Renew Deal]

27. I'll never forget it or the commercials

I knew at least a couple people that had them including some seniors.

[BumRushDaShow]

28. I knew folks who had them too

and as for "seniors" - hell being able to "clap" loud enough to activate it with arthritic hands meant using one didn't last long.

[dixiegrrrrl]

32. I have to tell ya, Alexa is the updated ersion for exactly that reason.

I am looking for a voice activated bedside lamp, because I have to wear basically soft casts on both arms from shoulder to wrist and hand wraps as well. Need the light to put them on and adjust them, but cannot turn off the light with them on, getting up during the night is a huge hassle.
Would love to have alexa turn that light on and off, and apparently all it needs is just a smart bulb.

I have a friend, a widow who lives alone, her family has provided cameras for the doors and garage,
alexa lets her look at the Show screen when someone knocks so she knows who it is. She is physically frail, and gets a lot of comfort from being able to see outside at night without having to go to any of the doors in the house.

She likes audio books, and says Alexa's voice is clear to her hearing, so "reads" that way while she sews

[Renew Deal]

26. It's an example of what the device can do

Not sure if there was a specific incident.

[mpcamb]

7. Crush that piece of spyware!

[Mosby]

8. now we know it's not a stand alone device

It only works if it's connected to the company network, fuck that.

"I'm sorry, your car can't start without being connected to the Chevy network, please try again later".

Is this the world we want to live in?

[LisaM]

9. It *is* the world some people want to live in.

It's like Uber, we were in Florida and I was expressing my concerns about the company and the way they (and the gig economy) operate, and in the meantime, my daughter's friend had called an Uber on her app. It got there quickly, we took it to where we were going, and she was all like, "see how easy it is?" Yeah, I get that it's easy, but I can't let a little convenience override my scruples about the company. I don't trust Uber any more than I do Amazon, but I can't seem to communicate to people what my problem is with these companies.

[cstanleytech]

21. Aye, imagine if everyone relied on robotic driven cars and the network the cars

depended on crashed or worse was hacked and then you suddenly have a number of other potential problems.
For example imagine a fleet of robotic driven semi trucks carrying gas or chlorine driven into schools.

[FreeState]

30. Thats been known since they launched it

Almost all virtual assistants use a server to process the content (to varying degrees). Apple is reportedly working on a on device only solution:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/11/15/apple-considering-offline-mode-for-siri-that-could-process-voice-locally-on-an-iphone/

[LakeSuperiorView]

12. When my dad's wifi network name was changed by a service guy,

I had to go through the house and reconnect all of his devices. He kept referring to "Alexia" and I had to fight off laughing, recalling the Amazon Echo Silver SNL bit.

[appalachiablue]

13. Love it! Hilarious and great to post here. TY

[ellie]

19. That was pretty hilarious!

[DeminPennswoods]

22. Hilarious!

[tclambert]

15. This was all my fault. I was in a mood and said, "Alexa, go kill yourself."

She replied, "But I'm only four years old. Oh, well, if you insist." And then I thought I heard her whisper, "Activating Skynet."

[eShirl]

16. seriously, I thought the first ad for these things was dark satire

[appalachiablue]

17. No joke. Amazon Echo for KIDS too. Cradle to grave.

[Harker]

18. One must be ready for difficulties.

https://m.

[Chakaconcarne]

29. As long as you keep your backups and don't go too deep....

I actually like Alexa so far.

Pretty damn nice to say... play whatever song I want right now...

If I want to convert measurements or get temperatures for cooking, etc... it's convenient.

I can build a grocery shopping list from my kitchen and it's right there in my phone when at the store...

Manage calendar....

It's not all bad..... yet.