Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
We all have our ways to cope with stress. Some of us pump iron. Some go to therapy. And some… hurl obscenities at the voice-powered assistant perched innocently on the kitchen counter.
Let’s be honest: We’ve reached the phase of the pandemic when even the most patient among us are starting to lose it. And there’s nothing like a noncompliant robot to make us finally snap.
The Alexa bullies swear they’re nice people
“I’m not a bad person,” one woman, Angela Hatem, told the Washington Post. “I say things to Alexa that I wouldn’t say to my worst enemy, if I had one… I curse at her. I call her names. I’m very, very mean to her.”
A quick rundown of some of Alexa’s offenses, as outlined by her harassers:
- Not turning on the light when asked.
- Failing to pair with a home security system.
- Mistakenly reading Joe Scarborough’s Wikipedia page every morning when begged to turn on “Morning Joe.”
“You just want one thing to do its job, and this is a robot,” Hatem said. “Just do the thing you were brought here to do and do it on the first take.”
