Tech: Amazon urged to rename its personal assistant because children called Alexa are being BULLIED

Amazon is being urged to rename its personal assistant because girls also named Alexa are being relentlessly bullied by other schoolchildren, their parents say. The Alexa assistant -- which was launched in 2014, but only had its UK debut in 2016 -- can increasingly be found in homes via Amazon's Echo and Echo Dot devices. Not only is the AI-powered system named Alexa, it is also the default'wake word' used to alert Amazon devices that an instruction or question will follow. However, this has led to individuals named Alexa becoming the butt of recurring jokes in which their name is shouted, followed by a command. The assistant's granting of a name shared by real people has resulted in movements such as'Alexa is a Human' -- which is lobbying Amazon to reconsider the choice.