A baby in the UK reportedly said ‘Alexa’ as his first word, and it reveals a raging debate over how children use tech
Amazon recently came out with a kid’s edition of its popular Alexa-enabled Echo Dot device tailored to a younger crowd with features designed specifically with them in mind
By Dennis Green
For at least one couple in the UK, Alexa was more important to their baby than mommy or daddy.
Parents Lottie Ledger and Mark Brady told the UK’s Caters News Agency that their one-year-old child said the word “Alexa” to an Amazon Echo device before saying any of the more classic first words.
“One day he managed it. We thought it was funny at first so we encouraged it,” Ledger said, as was reported by the New York Post. “He actually said Alexa before he said Mum or Dad.”
The child, Joe, interacted with the device at a grandparent’s house.
“It was one of the few things he could get a reaction from at that time,” Ledger told the agency. “Alexa would say, ‘Sorry, I didn’t get that.’”