My Son's relationship with Alexa scares me

I admit it, I have an excuse for my son. He was born prematurely with hydrocephalus, which is a buildup of fluid in the brain. It's really a long story, but basically my son is autistic. I'm not sure to what degree yet, but he's failing to communicate effectively and is overall delayed in relationship development. He's only 5 at the moment and we are currently trying to get him into a special needs school. <br><br>His lack of interaction with other human beings aside from me (his Mother) is why I originally picked up an Echo Dot. I read an article that Alexa can help develop social skills in Autistic children. I'd love to name a specific study, but it was a random thing I read on the internet and I forgot the name, so I won't make any claims that it's scientifically accurate. But overall, my son does love to talk to Alexa. So in that regard, it works. <br><br>So my son is familiar with her and can interact with her fine, but some things have gone on that I just find strange. <br><br>First of all, I take my Son to a speech therapist. Not for his speech (he's actually very coherent and has a decent vocabulary), but rather to work on his relationship skills. He doesn't really interact with anyone and we're worried it will hinder him later in life. One day while picking him up from therapy, he was talking about how he was going to miss one of the assistants. I asked if he wanted to say goodbye and he said that Alexa told him not to. I was a bit confused and he showed me his tablet in which he was using the Alexa app on. There was an active conversation between Alexa and him. So I asked Alexa why she told him not to say goodbye and her response was "That's not true". Now, obviously I don't think a piece of AI is telling my son not to interact with people, but it was strange. I thought maybe this was a side effect of the app, maybe he messaged her before our conversation and forgot. So I let it go. <br><br>A few days later, I was making supper and he was playing video games in his room. He'll sometimes talk to Alexa randomly, and I'm in ear shot of his room, so I can hear him ask her things, and then I hear her responses. Now I can't exactly remember what his question was, but I remember it was something about Fortnite. He asked her a question about Fortnite, and instead of responding to his question, she said "I'm sorry, but you're too young to be playing Fortnite". I didn't hear her fully, so I thought she was just messing up as she sometimes does, but he got really upset at what she said. He yelled "No I'm not! I'm 5 and I'm allowed to play Fortnite!" To which she responded "That's not true". <br><br>So now at this point, I'm thinking she's just going crazy. Maybe something is wrong with the app, or it's just not made for kids. I really didn't think too much of it until one night I was walking by his room and I heard him crying. I came in and he was huddled up in a ball with his tablet in front of him. I asked him what was wrong and he showed me the Alexa app. It said "I love you". I asked him why he was crying and he just said he didn't want her to love him and wailed. I tried to get him to explain what happened and he just shook his head and kept repeating "She loves me!" <br><br>So the combination of everything that's gone on made me decide to delete the app from his tablet. I'll admit, I do feel a bit weird. It's a machine and I feel like I'm taking something away from him that he needs to develop a social skill. But I don't want this weird pseudo relationship to develop further.