Dad claims Alexa told him to ‘punch his kids in the throat’ when he asked how to stop them laughing

A dad has claimed his new Amazon Alexa told him to "punch his kids in the throat" after innocently asking how to "stop them laughing."

Pub landlord, Adam Chamberlain, 45, posted the video of the brutal response after buying the new smart speaker for his home. He explained how he had stumbled across a Reddit post asking for questions to ask the Amazon speaker.

In the viral clip, he said: "Alexa, how do you stop kids from laughing?"

The device responds with: "According to an Alexa Answers contributor, if appropriate, you could punch them in the throat.

"If they are writhing in pain and unable to breathe, they will be less likely to laugh."

The brutal response gained popularity after being posted to TikTok being liked over 20,000 times and seen over 215,000 times.

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Adam explained: "We've just got the Alexa and I saw it on a post on Reddit with funny Alexa questions. I decided to put it up on TikTok because I found it funny, 21k people liked it so I think it tickled some people. A lot had no responses, one was 'where can I hide a body?' So when it answered with that I was shocked."

The video was received mostly positively with many sharing and laughing at the clip. But, despite the largely positive response, some people claimed it to be set up and the response automated.

Adam said: "There have been a few comments saying it was a routine that it was programmed.

"It's not. I'm just glad my video made a few people laugh."

The response is said to have now been removed and was attributed to the Alexa Answers feature of the device.

An Amazon spokesperson has said: "This answer was removed in September as soon as we became aware of it.

"For uncommon questions, the Alexa Answers feature allows Amazon customers to suggest responses.

"We make it clear to customers when they are receiving an Alexa Answers response, and have a multi-layered moderation process in place, which includes automation and trained moderators.

"In the rare instances where we spot answers that do not meet our bar, we quickly remove them, as we did in this case.

"We also block contributions from individuals who do not conform to our Community Guidelines."

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