Alexa wants you to ask 'what to do with leftover drugs' (Update: Amazon statement)

Update, July 25, 2024 (03:02 PM ET): Amazon has responded to our request for a statement on the unusual problem described in the article below. Here is a statement from an Amazon spokesperson, in full:

Alexa is designed to provide accurate, appropriate, and helpful information. These were unfortunate errors and we took swift action to fix them as soon as they were brought to our attention. We continually audit and improve the systems we have in place for detecting and blocking inappropriate content, and have teams dedicated to preventing similar situations in the future.

The original unedited article continues after the break.

Original article, July 25, 2024 (11:04 AM ET): Digital assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant often form the central point of a smart home setup. They not only help you control your smart home devices but also make it easy for you to look up queries on the web. But sometimes, these digital assistants can mess up. Some Alexa-enabled Amazon Echo Show owners were in for a rude shock when their smart displays began prompting them to ask drug-related queries.

Reddit user Guitar_Scary was caught off-guard when their Amazon Echo displayed an Alexa Suggests suggestion, prompting the user to try asking the digital assistant, “What to do with leftover crystal meth?” A graphic also accompanied the question, as you can see in the image above.

The Reddit user did not offer more details on how this suggestion came to be. However, this isn’t the first time this suggestion has surfaced. Threads user pistol_pete724 claims to have received a similar suggestion earlier in the year but could not take a photo of the suggestion screen. However, the user proceeded to ask the question the prompt suggested, and here is Alexa’s response:

Alexa on Amazon Echo devices frequently showcases feature hints that could be useful to customers. While these hints may be well-intentioned for feature discovery, they have often irritated customers (even when the suggestions were innocent and SFW). There’s seemingly no easy way to turn off these suggestions completely, though there are workarounds that can help reduce the frequency of such suggestions.

If the suggestions can go overboard, as these two users have witnessed, we hope there is a way to completely disable them, as these suggestions are simply unacceptable.

We’ve contacted Amazon for comments on this issue. We will update this article when the company responds with a statement.