Cocaine, Reefer and the F-Word: Sometimes Alexa and Google Home Go a Little Crazy

Smart speakers such as Amazon's Echo and Alphabet Inc.'s Google Home products can handle a growing array of tasks from playing music to adjusting the thermostat to arming a security system. They are also sometimes freaking people out, seeming to drop into conversations uninvited, playing music unprompted in the middle of the night, turning on other gadgets at random and acting generally, well, possessed. Companies say there are reasonable explanations, such as the device mishearing its "wake word"--which it recognizes to start listening to commands. But such episodes can leave owners shaken and unsure of what to do next. Put the device in time out?