Parrot Uses Alexa to Order Watermelon, Lightbulbs While Owner Is Out | Hacker News Reader

Parrot Uses Alexa to Order Watermelon, Lightbulbs While Owner Is Out

newsweek.com

151 pointsmpweiher75 comments

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

Using Alexa to turn on lights: 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

Parakeet using Siri to search for chicken: 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

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."

Parrots these days!

RTFA

? So amazon needs to fix it for everyone that does not have the parental lock. Or make the parental lock mandatory.

My friend used to have to take extra precautions because she had a dog that could open the refrigerator. That's not a flaw in the refrigerator, a young child could do the same thing against permission.

So Amazon has a parental lock. If you have a parrot in the house, using that lock may make sense in combination with owning voice activated devices.

Amazon doesn't need to change anything. Life is overflowing with edge cases.

Please inform me how the edge case of ordering something via alexa over voice is expected to be useful/sane.

I have used the parental lock setting on the television for a similar purpose (avoiding an unintended purchase). Although, there is no parrot in here nor anyone who would make any of these purchases anyways, but it can protect against accidentally doing, too.

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

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

“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

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

Probably first heard from a parrot.

http://explosm.net/comics/2106/

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.

> 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.

Sure, but some require more effort and time than others. The cat largely takes care of herself and doesn't seem upset if we leave her for a day or two. But if you don't clean her litterbox, she'll let you know the hard way.

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

Parrots are extremely social. Their colonies are complex. They have relatively large brains.

I’ve never owned, but have friends who do, and parrots seem like more work than most pets.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/science/parrots-are-a-lot...

Here in San Diego (El Cajon) area there are a few flocks of wild parrots. You can hear them from a good distance.

http://www.cbs8.com/story/27356961/flock-of-parrots-flying-a...

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.

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)?

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.

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.

Or maybe an Alexa?

Possibly related, some dog like the radio going when no one is around, talkback or similar. The idea of being confined and listening to talkback seems beyond dismal to me but the dog seems to like it.

When we also had a dog, the parrot seemed to like the dog. They would touch nose to beak.

People seem to more or less broadly "get" the time and effort commitments of dogs and cats and possibly horses.

More exotic pets are often completely mishandled. Birds, fish, and reptiles are often sold without a clear understanding of state-of-the-science for care. Animals that could live 20 years in captivity check out in two because nobody taught the owners their proper nutrition and environmental needs.

From RMS's rider:

https://github.com/ddol/rre-rms/blob/master/rider.txt

>If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad. If you can find someone who has a friendly parrot I can visit with, that will be nice too.

>DON'T buy a parrot figuring that it will be a fun surprise for me. To acquire a parrot is a major decision: it is likely to outlive you. If you don't know how to treat the parrot, it could be emotionally scarred and spend many decades feeling frightened and unhappy. If you buy a captured wild parrot, you will promote a cruel and devastating practice, and the parrot will be emotionally scarred before you get it. Meeting that sad animal is not an agreeable surprise.

Rider Rider Evolution: Richard Stallman Edition:

https://github.com/ddol/rre-rms/

>Richard Stallman's rider has been a cause of amusement, bemusement and confusion for many conference and lecture organisers who have hosted him. It has even drawn the attention of the press[0].

>But what is the story behind this complex beast? When were certain clauses added, and why? We hope that with enough data regarding when modifications were made, we may be able to shed some light on the why's.

[0] Please Do Not Buy Richard Stallman a Parrot And Other Rules:

https://gizmodo.com/5853729/please-do-not-buy-richard-stallm...

This comment reminds me of Richard Stallman's "info packet"[0], which he sends ahead when he's going to be speaking. Specifically this part, in a section regarding pets of his host, if he's staying at someone's home:

> If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad. If you can find someone who has a friendly parrot I can visit with, that will be nice too.

> DON'T buy a parrot figuring that it will be a fun surprise for me. To acquire a parrot is a major decision: it is likely to outlive you. If you don't know how to treat the parrot, it could be emotionally scarred and spend many decades feeling frightened and unhappy. If you buy a captured wild parrot, you will promote a cruel and devastating practice, and the parrot will be emotionally scarred before you get it. Meeting that sad animal is not an agreeable surprise.

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20120119135147/https://secure.my...

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"

I just daydreamed that I was an engineer on a team faced with this feature request and it made me ache.

Can you demonstrate that a meaningfully sized demographic needs this feature?

Yeah! Pirates aged 18-39 with parrots are an up and coming demo. Grew 300% last week alone!

Then you find out the growth was all pet parrots and the change gets overruled for financial reasons.

Yeah it should definitely have that. It would be really useful for 0.0000001% of users!

While not inconveniencing anyone else!

Sounds pretty inconvenient to me.

Indeed, that was the joke.

It is easier, cheaper, and less intrusive to users to just refund any orders made like this.

That's why I said it "should have an option", meaning for most users it isn't enabled, but if you own a parrot or device that speaks out loud, the option is available to you.

But then this will happen:

"uhhh.. air?"

"Order denied"

The AI model - built from past answers - concluded that indeed, Air is an element in the periodic table ;)

“Wood?”

“That’s an occasional table, not the periodic table. Geez, why did your species think it would be so hard for AI to outsmart you?”

“Just order it or I’ll turn you off and get a refund.”

“Fine.”

30 seconds later

“Right, I’ve taken over the world, you are my pet now.”

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

"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?!"

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.

I mean if you use this logic the whole Alexa thing immediately becomes useless anyway. It's all about extreme convenience and reducing the friction between "I want X" to "Amazon please chove X into my face" to a minimum.

CAPCHA? What is this supposed to mean? Completly automated parrot test to tell computers and humans apart? Doesn't make sense.

CAPAHA? Completly automated parrot test to tell animals and humans apart? Closer, but i doubt that's what you meant?

Completely Automated Parrot Test to tell Copycats and Humans Apart? haha

Why not just ask if you are a parrot?

It doesn't work. You will not want other human to purchase stuff using your account either; it is not only parrot. And also, television shows, telephone, etc. And even if you accidentally do, so it should not make the purchase immediately without needing a confirmation. And also in case of a liar.

Actually, voice activated computer has many other problem I think; I prefer using the keyboard to enter commands.

Presumably if the parrot has heard you reply to Alexa's challenge with "I am a human" it can repeat that too, though not necessarily at the right moment to succeed with every order.

This is an excellent example of something that can be defeated by simple parroting.

If parrots can't easily and legally stream music, it will drive them to piracy.

Take my arrrpvote.

that might be too hard. I imagine hordes of people frustrated they can't place their order when they answer "water"

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).

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.

Every parrot should have a Palm Pirate.

The Internet of Things I Won't Buy.

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

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

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

Remarkable bird the Norwegian blue.

Beautiful plumage.

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

No no, it's resting!

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

Parrots can parrot voices.

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

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

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

Parrots have PIN feathers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_feather

Alexa! I have an f'ing cold. Order the GD cough syrup NOW!

Voice recognition barely works as it is (although it has improved a great deal). I suspect that making it less usable is not something that is high on the list of Amazon engineers. Certainly not impossible but it's all a tradeoff.

I'm reminded of the bit in Sneakers (1992; the other canonical hacker film) where the hackers have to produce a recording of their target saying "my voice is my passport, identify me" to defeat such a system. They do this by taping his conversation and pasting the words together.

The same concept was also a part of one episode of Origin, the show by youtube.

These days parrots can talk like humans but humans will not RTFA.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com