The monkey tried to approach and attack the girls. (Representational)
A 13-year-old girl’s ability to think on her feet saved her and a toddler from a monkey attack in UP’s Mau district. The girl commanded Alexa, Amazon’s virtual voice assistant, to bark to scare away a monkey that had entered her sister’s home.
The incident happened when 13-year-old Nikita had gone to her sister’s place in Mau’s Awas Vikas Colony. She was playing with her one-year-old niece near the kitchen on the first floor of the house. A monkey suddenly entered the home and made its way to the kitchen. All family members in the house were in the other room, unaware of the monkey. The monkey started throwing utensils in the kitchen and even tried to approach and attack the girls.
The baby, unable to understand what was happening, started calling for her mother. This is when Nikita spotted the Alexa device kept on the fridge and commanded it to ‘bark’. The device then made loud barking noises, scaring the monkey away.
The girl’s family was relieved and proud of Nikita for her swift action that not only saved her, but also her niece. One of the family members, Pankaj Ojha, said that he was surprised that Alexa could be used like this.
Alexa is Amazon’s cloud-based voice assistant used for many everyday activities such as setting timers, asking queries, playing music, and much more. However, whether the device is safe to use for children has been a topic of debate.
In December 2021, a 10-year-old girl’s life was put in danger by Alexa when the device challenged her to touch a penny to the exposed prongs of a phone charger plugged into the wall. When the girl’s mother shared the incident, Amazon responded and said, “As soon as we became aware of this error, we took swift action to fix it.”
