In 2018, Rocco, a very bright African grey parrot, went on a super shopping spree, using Alexa on Amazon.
Today, he continues to live with Marion Wischnewski in her home in Oxfordshire, about 50 miles from London. But in 2018, Rocco had watched Marion use Alexa, and unbeknownst to her, he began ordering groceries as she did.
He ordered strawberries, broccoli, raisins, watermelon, ice cream, a lightbulb, a kite, even a kettle. Groceries were arriving at Marion‘s home, that she couldn’t recall ordering.
She knew Rocco enjoyed speaking with Alexa, and having Alexa play his favorite rock music. But ordering groceries was the next step for this ultra bright twentyish in age parrot. She caught him in the act of ordering groceries and stopped his shopping spree by restricting his access to Alexa.
In a related story, for purposes of our Fable, I too have an ultra-smart African gray parrot, Winston.
When I found out Winston was ordering groceries, I didn’t object because he and I like many of the same foods. And his music choices are very similar to mine, so we enjoyed rock ‘n’ roll together.
But just when everything was working well, I discovered Winston had secretly begun using Polymarket online to bet on future events. To pay for his gambling, he had moved money from my bank account.
He was making sports bets, interest rate bets, and weather bets, unfortunately not being good at any of them. Winston got away with this until he lost so many bets so fast, there was not enough money on account to pay for them.
I found out about this when Polymarket tried to collect on his losses. Thanks to Winston, it looked like he and I could be living on the streets.
But when Polymarket found out he was a parrot, embarrassed by this fiasco, they forgave his debts, if I promised them, he would never bet again, which I did.
Since then, he’s been a good boy. But lately, I noticed he’s been watching The Jewelry Exchange online, and muttering, “Diamonds could be a good investment.“ I’m afraid to leave the house.
With Love To All, Dick
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