Amazon is trying to stop its Amazon Echos, powered by the Alexa voice-activated assistant, from suddenly laughing.
The online retail giant told to tech news publication The Verge on Wednesday that it is aware that some Echo Internet-connected speakers have a laughing problem and is “working to fix it.”
Amazon’s (AMZN) acknowledgement of the issue comes after several people have reported on Twitter and Reddit that their Amazon Echo speakers have started laughing, for no apparent reason. People typically activate their Echo speakers by saying the word “Alexa,” which triggers the device to listen and respond to commands like changing the volume.
The latest laughing is causing some customers to feel unsettled and confused. Other say it’s spooky, like something out of a horror film.
Although third-party devices like some HP Inc. Personal computers and certain modems work with Alexa, the problem appears to be limited to the Amazon Echo and the smaller Echo Dot.
Https://twitter.com/vedantNAIK/status/970231970583195648
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
https://twitter.com/sorrowavenue/status/967180763568398336
Amanda and I were sitting in my room just talking and whatnot and my Amazon Alexa started laughing… I’m scared
— Sierra (@sierracatheryn) February 20, 2018
We just unplugged all the Amazon echo speakers around the house.
I don’t need AI creepily laughing in the middle of the night. #alexalaughing#alexa— Rekha Mylav (@septemberspice) March 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/MandyMaloo/status/971040249441869835
Our @amazonecho just randomly started laughing. No one spoke to it. No one was even in the room with it. I’m out y’all.
— Lauren Hall (@LaurenHall_16) February 14, 2018
A Reddit user also described problems with the Amazon Echo Dot two weeks ago:
We just added the echo dots two months ago. The dot we have in the master bath has twice now randomly played a track of a woman laughing at about 10 p.m. The first time I thought the fire tv was sending audio through it since I had been trying to sync them up to the tv, but tonight was completely random. No indication on the app that the device heard any command. We had the dot laugh several times and it wasn’t the laugh Alexa produces, but definitely sounded like a canned laugh, not like someone laughing live.
It’s unclear what’s causing the errors and Amazon’s brief statement did not say when the problem would be fixed or if other Alexa-enabled devices are also affected.
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Coins2Day contacted Amazon for more details and will update this story if it responds.
Update: Wednesday 4:35 PM PST.
An Amazon spokesperson told Coins2Day that Amazon has addressed the problem:
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.