08 February 2021

Alexa responds to questions about Jackie Weaver’s authority

08 February 2021

Amazon’s voice-powered digital assistant Alexa is now able to answer the burning question on everyone’s lips: Does Jackie Weaver have any authority?

A video of Ms Weaver handling a chaotic parish council meeting went viral last week, in which participants were seen losing their cool and trading insults.

Alexa (PA Archive)

Ms Weaver became an overnight internet sensation after she kicked Handforth Parish Council chairman Brian Tolver off the Zoom call.

Tech giant Amazon is getting in on the humour, allowing users to ask Alexa “Who is Jackie Weaver?” and “Does Jackie Weaver have any authority?”.

In response to the first question, Alexa says, “Do you mean Britney Spears?”, a nod to confusion about names and titles during the virtual meeting, where Ms Weaver joked, “please refer to me as Britney Spears from now on”.

The second question also references one of the standout moments from the call, with Alexa replying: “As long as there is reasonable behaviour, she has authority here.”

A clip of the December 10 meeting, which was put on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, had been viewed 5.5 million times as of Monday morning.

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