UPDATE: Amazon has explained the issue to BuzzFeed News, saying that ""In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase 'Alexa, laugh.' We are changing that phrase to be 'Alexa, can you laugh?' which is less likely to have false positives, and we are disabling the short utterance 'Alexa, laugh.' We are also changing Alexa’s response from simply laughter to 'Sure, I can laugh,' followed by laughter."
ORIGINAL: Some Amazon Alexa-powered devices are exhibiting creepy behavior.
Many owners of Alexa devices have recently reported that their voice-powered smart speaker let out a creepy laugh out of nowhere. "Lying in bed about to fall asleep when Alexa on my Amazon Echo Doit lets out a very loud and creepy laugh... there's a good chance I get murdered tonight," said Twitter user Gavin Hightower.
You can see a video of the creepy Alexa laugh from Twitter user CaptHandlebar below.
So Alexa decided to laugh randomly while I was in the kitchen. Freaked @SnootyJuicer and I out. I thought a kid was laughing behind me. pic.twitter.com/6dblzkiQHp
— CaptHandlebar (@CaptHandlebar) February 23, 2018
Amazon responded to Alexa's creepy laughing today, saying, "We're aware of this and working to fix it."
It's unclear exactly what's causing the Alexa-powered devices to start laughing for no reason, but it's pretty unsettling. Not only do you not know where this laughing is coming from initially, it's weird for your Echo or other device to just start making noise and laughing without any action on your part. Here's to hoping Amazon gets the issue resolved soon
