Already well-known for their love of trolling and poking fun at current trends, the creators of the long-running cartoon exposed a vulnerability in smart home devices Amazon Echo and Google Home.
At various points during a September 2017 episode, the show’s characters would call out to the voice-activated devices and activate alarms, add unwanted things to users shopping lists and get the A.I.-assistants to repeat vulgar phrases.
The episode underscored long-running concerns about the devices. For example, researchers in China figured out how to control voice-activated home devices by transmitting high-frequency sounds that are nearly inaudible to humans.
See our cover story: The Dangers of Digital Things
Attribution: Text by Victor Li; photo by Wikimedia Commons