Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos once told an early prototype of his company's virtual assistant Alexa to "shoot yourself in the head" in frustration, a new book has revealed. Jeff Bezos was testing the device at his Seattle home in 2013 when he lost his temper at its lack of understanding, Brad Stone wrote in his book 'Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire,' which was released on Tuesday.
"In pique of frustration over its lack of comprehension, he told Alexa to go 'shoot yourself in the head'," Mr Stone wrote in his book, according to the Daily Mail.
The harsh words were delivered during the testing of an early device powered by Alexa. At that time, the project was referred to as "Doppler" - and engineers who reviewed the interaction said they thought the project was doomed, reports Business Insider.
"We all thought it might be the end of the project, or at least the end of a few of us at Amazon," one engineer told Mr Stone.
Amazon manager Neil Ackerman also reported problems with the product, saying it would "hardly ever" give him the right answer. He was a beta tester for the product in early 2013.
Engineers at Amazon eventually did figure out how to make Alexa smarter. The first version of the AI technology was launched in 2014 along with the Amazon Echo smart speakers.
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