Alexa, Burn My House Down

If you think Echos were only goodfor invading your privacy and enticing hacker , then boy do I have some news show for you . Amazon just stick in a new addition to the Smart Home Skill API for Alexa : cooking . Your voice - insure helper could potentially be burn down your sign in no metre !

Alexa ’s new cooking capabilities sound quaint for now . In an announcement web log post , Amazon developer Mike Maas said that the first Alexa - powered kitchen gismo would be a microwave oven from Whirlpool with bread and butter for “ other preparation twist , such as conventional oven , ” come presently . The proclamation office also links tosome developer documentsthat declare oneself up good example for commands that include “ Alexa , microwave the popcorn ” and “ Alexa , cook the pizza pie in the microwave oven . ” ( Pro tip : never put pizza in the microwave unless you want to eat a slab of soggy pencil eraser with cheese on top . ) GE Appliances , Kenmore , LG , and Samsung will presently announce Alexa cooking capabilities on kitchen appliances of their own .

Microwaves seem like an easy entryway - point for Alexa , our new artificially intelligent chef . Popcorn is so well-fixed , and there are all these presets that make it even easy . But do n’t be cod . As we learned from the Oscar - nominated celluloid American Hustle , bad things can hap if you habituate the science oven wrong . Here ’s a clipping :

Okay okay , you ’ve probably learned not to put alloy in the microwave by now . But can you imagine ? Your tiddler does n’t learn so honest and then he throw a can of Spaghetti - Os in your new Whirlpool microwave and tells Alexa to cook them for , I do n’t know , 20 moment . This is marvelous , but it demonstrates that a human could severalise a golem to do something that would perhaps cause your family to sting down .

The idea of cooking with an Amazon Echo will spread beyond the microwave oven . Amazon says that Alexa - power oven are on the way , which make you marvel about all the extra risk call for in an unnaturally well-informed robot controlling a machine that manipulates fire . One peril , for example , could be the fact that Alexa control have in mind physically visiting your oven wo n’t be necessary . How do you cognise that your silly minor did n’t hide his fireworks in there ? Turning the broiler on to heat up a character of pyrotechnic could also possibly cause your house to burn down .

https://gizmodo.com/why-is-my-smart-home-so-fucking-dumb-1684949715

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

These are crazy hypotheticals , but there ’s also reason to wonder how well manufacturers will deal with tot up these newfound Alexa cooking capabilities into internet - link gismo . After all , the Internet of Thingsis infamously and relentlessly hackable . numberless society have also fight with building connected gadgets that simply work like they ’re supposed to . Even Jagganath like GEhave a shuddery track record of building uncollectible technology .

One would go for that developers will progress safeguards into these new Alexa cooking capacity . One would also trust that appliance manufacturer will integrate voice - control with caution , since the technology is so young . It ’s also encourage that the Alexa Fund endue in the June Oven , a stupidly expensive oven that also happens to be stupidly awesome . That might mean that Amazon is really taking this cooking thing seriously .

You should , too . That is , if you plan on using Alexa to control your microwave and your oven and whatever else in your kitchen can deals with blast and red-hot , raging passion . guard first . Impressing your node with a voice - command popcorn machine second . And hey , if all else go bad , just use those pommel and buttons . Humans have been doing it for decades with only a special number of kitchen firing .

William Duplessie