Amazon’s Alexa started calling man a ‘SH**HEAD after he cancelled his Amazon Prime subscription

VIRTUAL ASSISTANT Alexa told a customer he was a “s**thead” after he asked it to play some music.

Michael Slade, 29 was shocking to hear his Amazon Echo Dot call him the rude name a day after he had cancelled his Prime subscription.

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After coming home and asking the personal assistant to play some music, he got the reply: “Sure, here’s your playlist ****head on Amazon music. Sorry something went wrong.”

Although the voice assistant bleeped out the swear word, shocked, Michael, from Cwmbran, south Wales said: “I couldn’t believe it.

“I tried to cancel my subscription and had a short conversation with someone in customer services and the next day my Alexa is calling me names.

“I’ve spoken to technical support and they’ve never heard of this happening before.” The online business owner said he’s never set up a playlist on Amazon music and has no idea why it’s playing up.

After contacting Amazon they sent him a £5 gift voucher to compensate him.

He said: “The technical team couldn’t believe it. They kept saying sorry but they didn’t know what had happened.

“I normally asked it to play me music. I’ve never made a playlist. When I ask it to play music, it would say ‘here’s something you might like’ and it’s normally some pop or student favourites.

“I was a bit annoyed at the gift card they send me - five pounds is hardly enough for being called a s*** head.

“All I wanted to do was cancel my Prime subscription because I wasn’t using it. I’ve wondered if someone has changed something on my account.

“Although it’s strange because everything else works fine and it is still calling me Mike.”

It is possible to get Alexa to make rude comments using software which can be uploaded to the device.

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But Michael said: “I swear I haven’t done anything to it. Hand on heart I haven’t made it say it, or know why. Nor do any of my housemates.”

After The Sun approached Amazon, Michael was offered a free Prime membership for a year, and a £250 gift voucher.

They also asked him to provide access to the logs of his Alexa to find out what went wrong.

An Amazon spokesperson said: "Customers are able to personalise their Alexa experience, including playlist names.
"Alexa would not respond in this way without some customisation from the user."

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