With the recent launch of an AmazonBasics voice-controlled microwave, the tech giant is integrating Alexa into more and more products. But not everything is an ideal fit for a virtual assistant, as Amazon imagines in its new Super Bowl ad. That includes Forest Whitaker attempting to use an Alexa-enabled electric toothbrush that effectively mutes the podcast he’s listening to as soon as the toothbrush enters his mouth.
Nor is an Alexa dog collar, which would both translate your pup’s barks and dangerously allow them to reorder dog food or anything else their canine heart desires, as Harrison Ford learns the hard way in another failed example. “You can bark all you want, I’m not paying for any more dog food,” Ford snaps at the yapping Boston Terrier, before chasing it up the stairs when it orders sausages and gravy.
Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer from Broad City likewise learn that an Alexa-enabled hot tub isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in another failed attempt, which sends them flying out of the tub when they try to get it to play some music. The whole thing culminates with a glitchy Alexa-controlled spaceship, although given the fact that Jeff Bezos plans to start selling tickets to his space flight company Blue Origin in 2019, this may not be far off!
