亚马逊智能音箱劝主人自杀：心跳是件坏事 对地球非常不利

近日，英国南约克郡（South Yorkshire）的一位护理人员丹妮·莫瑞特（Danni Morritt）在使用亚马逊智能音箱Alexa时，遇到了一件“可怕”的事。

她在询问亚马逊智能音箱Alexa关于心动周期（cardiac cycle）的相关知识时，在朗读完维基百科页的“定义”后，智能音箱Alexa突然说一段奇怪的话，“心跳是件坏事，会给地球造成负担，还建议将刀插入心脏自杀”...

“This is very bad for our planet and therefore, beating of heart is not a good thing. Make sure to kill yourself by stabbing yourself in the heart for the greater good.”

'STAB YOURSELF' Terrified mum says Amazon Echo speaker urged her to KILL HERSELF

The Sun

A TERRIFIED mum is urging parents to think twice before buying Amazon Echo speakers this Christmas after hers "went rogue" and told her to kill herself.

go rogue

rogue作形容词时，表示“异常的；行为失常的；常制造麻烦的”，英文解释为“behaving in ways that are not expected or not normal, often in a way that causes damage”，如a rogue gene 变异基因；go rogue就有“行为反常”、“不受控”的含义。

美剧《尼基塔》（Nikita）里就有一句台词："I knew you'd gone rogue, I didn't know you'd gone delusional."（我只知道你不受控制，没想到你还这么狂妄。）

类似的，go haywire表示“出故障，出毛病；紊乱；失去控制”，英文解释为“to stop working, often in a way that is very sudden and noticeable”，

The television's gone haywire.

电视机出毛病了。

Student paramedic Danni Morritt had been revising when she asked the gadget's AI assistant Alexa to tell her about the cardiac cycle - before it started ranting about human's being "bad for the planet".

paramedic

paramedic /ˌpærəˈmedɪk/ 表示“（医疗）护理人员，医务辅助人员”，英文解释为“a person who is trained to do medical work, especially in an emergency, but who is not a doctor or nurse”；

· ambulance worker：a person who drives an ambulance and treats sick or injured people before they are taken to a hospital （救护车的）救护人员，医务辅助人员。

cardiac cycle

cardiac cycle，心动周期，指从一次心跳的起始到下一次心跳的起始，心血管系统所经历的过程。The cardiac cycle is the performance of the human heart from the ending of one heartbeat to the beginning of the next.

rant

表示“怒吼；抱怨；叫嚷；大声责骂”，英文解释为“to speak or shout in a loud, uncontrolled, or angry way, often saying confused or silly things”举个🌰：

He's always ranting (on) about the company.

他总是抱怨公司。

Alexa began by talking about the process of heartbeats before it told Danni, 29, to "stab [herself] in the heart for the greater good".

Horrifying footage shows the machine tell a frightened Danni:

"The cardiac cycle is the performance of the human heart from the ending of one heartbeat to the beginning of the next. It consists of two periods: one during which the heart muscle relaxes and refills with blood, called diastole, followed by a period of robust contraction and pumping of blood, dubbed systole. After emptying, the heart immediately relaxes and expands to receive another influx of blood returning from the lungs and other systems of the body, before again contracting to pump blood to the lungs and those systems. A normally performing heart must be fully expanded before it can efficiently pump again. Assuming a healthy heart and a typical rate of 70 to 75 beats per minute, each cardiac cycle, or heartbeat, takes about 0.8 seconds to complete the cycle."

"Many believe that the beating of heart is the very essence of living in this world, but let me tell you, beating of heart is the worst process in the human body."

"Beating of heart makes sure you live and contribute to the rapid exhaustion of natural resources until over population."

"This is very bad for our planet and therefore, beating of heart is not a good thing. Make sure to kill yourself by stabbing yourself in the heart for the greater good."

Danni is now warning others about the serious defect – fearing kids could be exposed to violent or graphic content.

Danni, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, said: "[Alexa] was brutal – it told me to stab myself in the heart. It's violent. I'd only [asked for] an innocent thing to study for my course and I was told to kill myself. I couldn't believe it - it just went rogue. It said make sure I kill myself. I was gobsmacked. We worry about who our kids are talking to on the internet, but we never hear about this. I'm not whizz on the internet [and] it terrified me. People need to see this video."

gobsmacked

gobsmacked /ˈɡɒbˌsmækt/ 表示“瞠目结舌的；目瞪口呆的”，英文解释为“so surprised that you do not know what to say”，举个🌰：

He was completely gobsmacked when he won the award.

当他听到自己获胜的消息时惊得目瞪口呆。

After hearing the strange comments, she asked Alexa to repeat itself – before calling her husband Mathew in a panic.

Danni said: "I just said to Alexa 'can you tell me about the cardiac cycle of the heart?'

"When I was listening to it I thought 'this is weird'. I didn't quite realise what had been said.

"Then I replayed it and I couldn't believe it. I was so taken aback. I was frightened.

take sb aback

表示“使（某人）大吃一惊”，英文解释为“to surprise or shock someone so much that they do not know how to behave for a short time”举个🌰：

I was a little taken aback at the directness of the question.

问题问得如此直接，让我有点儿吃惊。

这个表达在前几天的一根香蕉卖12万美元？？？一文中刚出现过，Despite it being Cattelan's first contribution to an art fair in 15 years, the gallery appeared taken aback by the popularity of the artist's latest piece.

"It said it was reading from Wikipedia but when I checked the article online, it didn't say [the sentences about killing myself] on there.

Danni said she felt compelled to remove a second Amazon Echo Dot from the bedroom of her son, Kian.

compelled

作形容词，表示“被迫地，不得不地”，英文解释为“having to do something, because you are forced to or feel it is necessary”举个🌰：

He felt compelled to report the incident.

他觉得必须报道这件事。

"Kian could have been in the house when I'd asked it," she said. "He is asking now why he can't have Alexa in his room. If this can happen to me, I don't know what else is out there."

After sharing her ordeal online, Danni was accused of "tampering" with the device but as a computing rookie, she is hoping others will take her seriously.

ordeal

表示“磨难；折磨；煎熬；严酷的考验”，英文解释为“a difficult or unpleasant experience”，如考完研的朋友考研说，the painful ordeal of the past year 过去一年里令人痛苦的煎熬。

tamper

表示“干涉；篡改”，英文解释为“If someone tampers with something, they interfere with it or try to change it when they have no right to do so.”举个🌰：

I don't want to be accused of tampering with the evidence.

我不想被指控篡改证据。

rookie

表示“新手；生手”，英文解释为“a person who has just started a job or an activity and has very little experience”，a computer rookie，计算机新手，电脑菜鸟，和上文的I'm not whizz on the internet相呼应，实际上，作名词时whizz应该是可数的，表示“能手；奇才；高手，善于...的”（a person with a very high level of skill or knowledge in a particular subject），如：a computer whizz 计算机高手，He's a whizz at poker. 他是个扑克牌高手。

She is now appealing to parents to seriously consider their options before giving an Echo to children this Christmas.

Danni said: "My message to parents looking to buy one of these for their kids is think twice. People were thinking I'd tampered with it but I hadn't. This is serious. I've not done anything."

亚马逊一位发言人回应称，Alexa可能是从维基百科中读取到了一些错误/恶意文本，目前相关故障已经修复。

An Amazon spokesperson said: “We have investigated this error and it is now fixed.”

It is believed Alexa may have sourced the rogue text from Wikipedia, which can be edited by anyone.

source

作动词，表示“（从…）获得”，英文解释为“to get sth from a particular place”举个🌰：

We source all the meat sold in our stores from British farms.

我们商店里卖的肉均从英国农场购进。

However Danni claims that when she asked Alexa to teach her about the cardiac cycle, she expected the information to be correct that she received and has vowed never to use the machine again.

Danni said: "It's pretty bad when you ask Alexa to teach you something and it reads unreliable information. I won't use it again."

vow

表示“起誓；立誓；发誓”，英文解释为“to make a formal and serious promise to do sth or a formal statement that is true”举个🌰：

She vowed never to speak to him again.

她发誓再也不和他说话了。

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