The strange, unprompted laughter some Alexa-enabled device users have been reporting hearing, is now a thing of the past, according to Amazon.
Amazon first responded to the creepiness with a statement saying that the company is “aware of this and working to fix it.”
The solution is to change the “Alexa, can you laugh?” command, which results in the device being “less likely to have false positives,” says Amazon.
This means that Alexa’s software is now less likely to mistake common words and phrases, which should in theory stop the assistant from maniacally laughing for no apparent reason.
Amazon says that Alexa’s response to asking the device to laugh has been changed to, ‘Sure I can laugh,’ followed by a bout of laughter.
Yesterday reports emerged on Twitter and Reddit that Alexa had started laughing without being prompted with a wake word. While amusing, imagine being home alone and hearing an Amazon Echo randomly begin laughing, completely unprompted. Anyway you look at it, the experience would be off-putting and downright creepy.
The tweet below by Twitter user @CaptHandlebar is one of the first known reports of Alexa laughing unprompted.
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
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
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
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
Source: Twitter
