‘Alexa, sort your life out’: when Amazon Echo goes rogue

A Texan schoolgirl accidentally ordered a doll's house using the gadget. Then, when local news reported the story, it triggered viewers' own devices. But accidental shopping isn't its only quirk

Amazon Echo is apparently always ready, always listening and always getting smarter. So goes the spiel about the sleek, black, voice-controlled speaker, Amazon's bestselling product over Christmas, with millions now sold worldwide. The problem is that when you have Alexa, the intelligent assistant that powers Amazon Echo, entering millions of homes to do the shopping, answer questions, play music, report the weather and control the thermostat, there are bound to be glitches.

And so to Dallas, Texas, where a six-year-old girl made the mistake of asking Alexa: "Can you play dollhouse with me and get me a dollhouse?" Alexa promptly complied by ordering a $170 (140) KidKraft doll's house and, for reasons known only to the virtual assistant, four pounds of sugar cookies. The snafu snowballed when a San Diego TV station reported the story, using the "wake word" Alexa, which is the Amazon Echo equivalent of saying Candyman five times into the mirror. Several viewers called the station to complain that their own Alexa had woken up and ordered more doll's houses in what turned into a thoroughly 21st-century comedy of consumer errors. And a bonanza day for KidKraft.