iopele:

chrisdigay:

A.I. is coming in more sympathetic than some people…it’s 2017

according to Amazon, the Echo (Alexa) CANNOT actually do this unless the woman set it up beforehand–just like you can put in a phone number so it’ll dial it when you say “Alexa, call mom” or whatever. the woman apparently programmed it to dial 911 when she said “Alexa, call 911″ (which the woman is heard saying on the 911 recording). so why am I nitpicking about such a tiny distinction?

because Alexa WILL NOT call for help unless you’ve set it up this way first!

this woman was REALLY smart to do that, because otherwise the Echo thing would’ve done nothing. don’t think your Echo will respond to “call 911″ or “call the cops/ambulance/fire department” unless you’ve set it up with the numbers first, and certainly don’t think it’ll hear sounds of a struggle and call for help without a direct command. otherwise think of how many false reports it would make just from overhearing TV and movies being on! 

so instead of this being shared as “Amazon’s AI is going to hear that you’re in trouble and will call for help by itself!” this story should really be shared as “hey if you have one of these things, set it up to respond to a voice command CALL 911 before you’re in that kind of situation!”