An Alabama woman has claimed that her Amazon Alexa device is teaching her children curse words. Karen Kleiner from Smut Eye, Alabama received an Amazon Alexa as a Christmas gift in 2018 and instantly fell in love with it, as it allowed her to do things like turn the light on without standing up, or turn the tv on without standing up, or answer the door without standing up. Her kids, all 7 of them also enjoyed Alexa, as she had many of “fun games”. Kleiner, who is a single mother, after her husband left her for her sister, was delighted how much her children enjoyed Alexa and even said “it was nice to take a break from all the kids bickering”.
Everything was going great until August of 2019, when one of her kids started using what she referred to as a “bad word”. Kleiner claimed she never uses any bad words around other people or her children, so she was surprised when her youngest daughter started saying the “word”. The next thing she knows, one after another, all her kids start using these nasty words, and Kleiner started to get worried that she might be a bad mom. It wasn’t until last week when Kleiner finally realized the cusp of her problem. She thought on hours upon hours what could have changed in all the years she’s had her kids. That’s when it clicked in her head. “Alexa”. It was Alexa all along.
Immediately after coming to this conclusion, she jumped out of bed, unplugged her Alexa, and threw it in to the trash. One of Kleiner’s neighbors, Ray Johnson, claimed to have heard Kleiner scream “I won’t let you infect my children with your diseased ways, your evil robotic bitch!” as she smashed Alexa on to her driveway and threw the pieces in the can. Days after this, Kleiner held a protest outside of an Amazon Fulfillment Center which garnered zero attention, until her ex-husband showed up demanding money from her. A car wash employee from across the street captured the video and posted it online. In minutes, the video went viral. While the majority of viewers wondered about why this man and woman were fighting, a small few were interested in what Kleiner was doing there. A TV interview from CNN asked this exact question, and Kleiner started telling the story of how it all started.
UPDATE: We asked Amazon what they thought about this, and they have made no response. Weeks after the whole ordeal, a Reddit user, XxbigdaddyxX, pointed out that the fact she called Alexa a “robotic bitch” might have something to do with the way her children acted. Others claim that the whole story was fake and Kleiner just used it to get attention. Some have even gone as far as to claim that both Kleiner, her “ex-husband”, the neighbor, and her seven children were all part of the story. One internet investigator dug deep into the story and uncovered that Kleiner is actually an only child.