Amazon's Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology that is now a part of most homes across the world. From asking it to remind you to do a task to make it update your grocery list, people have quite literally appointed the home device as an assistant. While mostly, it's a human commanding Alexa, in a surprising turn of events, a parrot taken in by a woman in the UK ordered the device to order stuff from Amazon.
A stray African grey parrot named Rocco, was taken into care by the National Animal Welfare Trust , a charity in the United Kingdom. But since Rocco had a penchant for using bad language, a staff member of the charity, Marion Wischnewski took the sassy bird in.
However, at Wischnewski's house, Rocco developed a new and rather unusual habit while talking to the Amazon Alexa device in the house. In April, the owner discovered that Rocco had been ordering from Alexa when she asked the voice assistant to review her shopping list out loud. On the list were strawberries and broccoli, worth $3, that had been added by Rocco.
"Luckily, we never had the products delivered because we’ve set it up that you have to log on to actually process the order, so we could cancel the items,” Wischnewski told CNBC Make It.
Another blog post on the charity's website, which previously housed the parrot states that the naughty bird had asked Alexa for treats such as watermelon, raisins and ice cream. Additionally, Wischnewski revealed that she sometimes returned home to see the parrot enjoying some romantic music.
“I’ve never had any concerns with Alexa,” Wischnewski said. “The whole family uses it as it’s in the main part of the house. I guess that’s why Rocco got used to Alexa because we all talk to it, so he’s just joining in.”
Ever since the incident, Wischnewski has set up the device to work with a PIN code. However, since she and the family say the PIN out loud, she noted that "there's always a chance he could learn it, but so far, he hasn't."
A stray African grey parrot named Rocco, was taken into care by the National Animal Welfare Trust , a charity in the United Kingdom. But since Rocco had a penchant for using bad language, a staff member of the charity, Marion Wischnewski took the sassy bird in.
However, at Wischnewski's house, Rocco developed a new and rather unusual habit while talking to the Amazon Alexa device in the house. In April, the owner discovered that Rocco had been ordering from Alexa when she asked the voice assistant to review her shopping list out loud. On the list were strawberries and broccoli, worth $3, that had been added by Rocco.
"Luckily, we never had the products delivered because we’ve set it up that you have to log on to actually process the order, so we could cancel the items,” Wischnewski told CNBC Make It.
Another blog post on the charity's website, which previously housed the parrot states that the naughty bird had asked Alexa for treats such as watermelon, raisins and ice cream. Additionally, Wischnewski revealed that she sometimes returned home to see the parrot enjoying some romantic music.
“I’ve never had any concerns with Alexa,” Wischnewski said. “The whole family uses it as it’s in the main part of the house. I guess that’s why Rocco got used to Alexa because we all talk to it, so he’s just joining in.”
Ever since the incident, Wischnewski has set up the device to work with a PIN code. However, since she and the family say the PIN out loud, she noted that "there's always a chance he could learn it, but so far, he hasn't."
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