Amazon AI speaker throws ‘her own party’ in empty flat, forcing police to break in

'She decided to have it at a very inconvenient time, between 1.50am and 3.00am'

The Amazon Echo might soon have a rival

A man says Amazon’s AI assistant threw its own “party” at his flat in the early hours of the morning, forcing the police to intervene.

Oliver Haberstroh, who lives in Hamburg, says his Alexa-enabled speaker started playing music at full-blast in the early hours of the morning, when nobody was at home to control it.

Police had to break into his sixth-floor flat in order to investigate the disturbance, which was reported to them by Mr Haberstroh’s neighbours.

The voice-controlled speaker started playing music between 1:50am and 3am. Mr Haberstroh says he was on a night out at the time.

After returning home to find a new lock on his door, he visited the police station and was given the corresponding set of keys and an invoice.

“While I was relaxed and enjoying a beer, Alexa managed on her own, without command and without me using my mobile phone, to switch on at full volume and have her own party in my apartment,” he wrote on Facebook.

“She decided to have it at a very inconvenient time, between 1.50am and 3.00am. My neighbours called the police.”

Amazon, which has offered to cover Mr Haberstroh’s bill, claims Alexa didn’t malfunction, but was "remotely activated".

“Working directly with the customer, we have identified the reason for the incident,” the company told the Inquirer.

“Echo was remotely activated and the volume increased through the customer's third party mobile music-streaming app.

“Although the Alexa cloud service worked flawlessly, Amazon has offered the customer to cover the cost for the incident.”