Amazon's Alexa heard her name on TV and ordered up a ton of dollhouses

Streaming songs, ordering pizza, and booking cabs are no-brainers for Alexa, the voice-activated assistant installed on Amazon Echo devices. But Alexa also unfortunately appears to enjoy engaging in a little unintentional retail therapy. Recently, a six-year-old girl in Texas was able to order a $170 dollhouse and four-pounds worth of sugar cookies through Amazon's Echo Dot. But at least in that case, the kindergartner was actually talking directly to Alexa. On the morning of Jan. 5, California television channel CW-6 was reporting on the little girl's purchases when it accidentally caused a slew of other Alexas to also attempt shopping sprees.