This is the moment somebody defied the odds and outsmarted an Amazon Echo at its own game.
Footage shows a man challenging the voice service device – which responds to the name Alexa.
He says: ‘Alexa – let’s play guess my number.’
The voice-activated machine responds and asks her opponent to define the terms of play.
‘Welcome to guess my number,’ it says.
‘What is the maximum number you would like to go up to? For example, you could tell me to pick a number up to 100.’
Alexa takes the player up on his challenge, offering a considerably easier game than the one he asks for
The odds seem to be heavily stacked against him as the device asks for her opponent’s first guess
But that’s not quite high enough for this player, who replies: ‘One million’.
After settling on a number the machine asks for his first guess at its number.
Rather than respond with a whole number, he replies with 3.2.
Alexa then asks for a whole number, but strangely specifies it must be between zero and 545,387, almost doubling his chances of winning.
He considers his answer briefly, before settling on 545, 387.
Rather than picking a whole number, he appears to guess ‘3.2’ in an apparent trick that makes Alexa reveal the number she’s picked
The man repeats the highest number offered by the Echo, winning the game as result
Despite the odds of winning remaining apparently slim, the Amazon device admits defeat.
‘Congratulations,’ Alexa says. ‘You’ve guessed my number correctly.’
After the video was uploaded to Digg.com the website speculated his first, incorrect answer was a deliberate trick forcing the robot to reveal its answer.
‘We’re sensing something rotten is going on here… but that doesn’t mean we’re not still impressed,’ they wrote.