Amazon Alexa devices are laughing randomly, and people are freaking out
People are freaking out because their Alexa devices are laughing randomly—and during the most inappropriate moments.
Luckily, Amazon is already working on a fix.
Read more: 10 weird band merch items you can buy on Amazon
Imagine it's three in the morning and you hear a random laughter, but there's no one else at home. How would you react? Although it sounds like a horror movie, it really happened to Alexa users.
Apparently, the Amazon devices started laughing out of nowhere, which obviously freaked a lot of people out.
She started doing random shit. No joke. But then I asked her to play my @BettyBuckley mix she scared the crap out of me by telling me the definition of the word please! I swear to God!
THEN,
And, not making this up, I said “Alexa you're freaking me out” & she fucking laughed!
— Robert #Resist Sandy (@frodofied) March 7, 2018
Lying in bed about to fall asleep when Alexa on my Amazon Echo Dot lets out a very loud and creepy laugh… there’s a good chance I get murdered tonight.
— Gavin Hightower (@GavinHightower) February 26, 2018
so my mom & I are just sitting in the living room, neither of us said a word & our Alexa lit up and laughed for no reason. she didn’t even say anything, just laughed.
we unplugged her.
— taylor wade (@taylorkatelynne) March 5, 2018
Having an office conversation about pretty confidential stuff and Alexa just laughed. Anybody else ever have that?
It didn't chime as if we had accidentally triggered her to wake. She simply just laughed. It was really creepy.
— David Woodland (@DavidSven) March 1, 2018
On March 7, Amazon released a statement to The Verge saying it's aware of the problem and working to fix it. How?
The company will change the command from “Alexa, laugh” to “Alexa, can you laugh?” in order to avoid what they call “false positives,” or moments when the software mistakes words that sound similar. An Amazon spokesperson also told the website they are changing how Alexa respond to the command: it will start saying “Sure, I can laugh” first, then laugh, instead of laughing straight away.
One user uploaded a compilation of Alexa ramdonly laughing to YouTube. Check how creepy the laughter is below:
Watch more: Andy Biersack on growing up a pariah in eyeliner and the Warped Tour that renewed his sense of home