
Parrot Uses Alexa to Order Watermelon, Lightbulbs While Owner Is Out - mpweiher
https://www.newsweek.com/parrot-alexa-amazon-african-grey-england-animals-1260318
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nonamechicken
Looks like this is not a new thing among parrots. YouTube shows quite a few
results when I searched for "parrot alexa". Also, there are some interesting
videos for "parrot siri".

In one case, the owner got the package delivered also:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a43Ea_df0rw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a43Ea_df0rw)

Using Alexa to turn on lights:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeQD4UdGY-A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeQD4UdGY-A)

Petra the Parrot tries to shop on Amazon w Alexa:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFoQ16SEamY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFoQ16SEamY)

Parakeet using Siri to search for chicken:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbPxpi05ruY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbPxpi05ruY)

Not related to technology, but this birds reaction to the man destroying is
cage is funny (loud):
[https://youtu.be/XM8aBESf8EI?t=61](https://youtu.be/XM8aBESf8EI?t=61)

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rusbus
For everyone suggesting that Amazon needs to fix this, the article makes it
clear in the first sentence that these items were not actually purchased:

"Luckily, due to a parental lock, none of his attempted purchases went
through."

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lostlogin
The UI needs updating to allow it to have a parrot lock.

~~~
zachrose
Not just UI, this goes all the way to the data model.

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anotherevan
“If you have a parrot and you don’t teach it to say, ‘Help, they’ve turned me
into a parrot’, you are wasting everybody’s time.”

— Julia Segal

[https://twitter.com/juliasegal/statuses/25763973055](https://twitter.com/juliasegal/statuses/25763973055)

~~~
reustle
It's an old stolen joke, so it's probably not worth quoting her

~~~
starbeast
Probably first heard from a parrot.

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mark_l_watson
I love stories like this, even though my Meyers Parrot has a limited
vocabulary and could never pull this off. For me the best part is Marion
Wischnewski giving Rocco a good home. After having cats, monkeys, and dogs as
pets, I have to say that my parrot is my favorite pet, but most people
shouldn’t have parrots unless they can devote many hours a day to their care
and playing with them.

~~~
ta1234567890
> most people shouldn’t have parrots unless they can devote many hours a day
> to their care and playing with them

No one should have any pets (or kids) unless they can devote enough time to
them. Otherwise you are just making your life and their lives a lot harder.
Pets (and kids) are not toys.

~~~
quickthrower2
Many hours a day for a parrot seems surprising though. So is life go to work,
go home, parrot time, sleep, every day?

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mark_l_watson
Parrot time can also just be letting him sit on my shoulder while I am writing
or coding, or make sure he is near us when we watch a movie after dinner. I
didn’t intend to say that I have to be scratching his head a few hours a day,
although he would be fine with that. Also my wife doesn’t work and our parrot
is near her desk at home during the day. He basically likes to have someone in
the room with him.

~~~
bosie
When you say 'someone in the room with him', does it have to be a human? Would
another parrot suffice? What about other pets (large dogs for example)?

~~~
abruzzi
One parrot is a loud pet. Two parrots isn’t parrot+parrot, it’s parrot^parrot.
I know this because I have a metered conure, and an ex girlfriend has a sun
conure. I was hospitalized for six months and she volunteered to take my bird.
The were LOUD together, each feeding off the other.

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FooHentai
I had it explained to me as Parrot + Humans, the bird will 'talk human'.
Parrot + Parrot, the bird will 'talk bird' i.e. screeches and calls, louder.

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umvi
Seems like Alexa should have an option to enable basic CAPCHA/CAPAHA that
cannot be defeated by simple parroting, like

"Please confirm order by saying an element in the periodic table"

"Oxygen"

"Order confirmed"

~~~
onetimemanytime
How hard is it to just touch the freaking thing to confirm? I mean, how much
time is saved, 1.283 seconds?

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raverbashing
"Waaa it's inconvenient waaa why can't it obey any voice it hears waaa my
neighbour bought a lot of crap using my Alexa then got the packages off my
porch waaa why didn't they do something?!"

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ghaff
Should be good for at least a few dozen opinion pieces in online tech pubs
about how Alexa isn't really a voice assistant any longer.

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JustSomeNobody
Good way to keep the bird from being bored. This doesn’t need a fix, it needs
to be a feature (for animals to use to keep company).

~~~
dictum
A digital assistant becoming a bird's companion feels like a perfect
Disney/Pixar plot. It must either have been rejected previously or be in the
works.

Spoiler: the bird accidentally resets or damages the assistant, but manages to
get it back up, perhaps with the unwitting help of another digital assistant.

~~~
DonHopkins
Every parrot should have a Palm Pirate.

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pfdietz
The Internet of Things I Won't Buy.

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agumonkey
I was curious what would happen if you made a tactile interface for other pets
(dogs, cats, turtles).

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pizzapill
There are many games for cats on tablets. Scratch the mouse/fish etc. From
what I've seen on YouTube cats love it.

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agumonkey
I mean, not games, but more giving food, heating the cat tree a bit, things
with more physical implications.

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hestefisk
Remarkable bird the Norwegian blue.

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nkrisc
Beautiful plumage.

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masonic
The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.

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zyberzero
No no, it's resting!

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holstvoogd
don't these things have parental controls? Voice fingerprinting isn't that
hard, right?

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nostromo
Third sentence in the article: "Luckily, due to a parental lock, none of his
attempted purchases went through."

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ghaff
That's not voice fingerprinting though. It's requiring a PIN for purchases.

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adjkant
Google Home has this though it's easy for humans to beat. It would stop a
parrot though.

