Alexa, stop laughing. Amazon says her creepy, random laughter has been fixed
Amazon says it has exorcised Alexa, and she will no longer burst out in creepy laughter, which had freaked out some owners of Echo devices.
“In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase ‘Alexa, laugh,’ ” Amazon said in an email, reported Mashable. “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.”
The fix has already been rolled out, Amazon reported.
People on Twitter and Reddit had reported that Alexa, the voice of the company’s Echo devices, had started laughing spontaneously, creeping some out.
unprompted, my alexa just said "sure, I can laugh: tee hee" and I'm moving out now
— Daniel (@ddanielclemens) March 7, 2018
WHY DID MY ALEXA JUST LAUGH OUT OF THE BLUE?!?!?!?
— Kyle Fitzy Shanklin (@kylefitzy8) March 4, 2018
>Everybody sharing their experiences about how their Amazon Alexa starts talking unprompted and makes a creepy laugh.
— Rowan (@Redwylde) March 7, 2018
I swear if my Alexa starts that shit she will be out the window fr.
Of course, the news of a fix prompted more online jokes.
"Alexa becomes self-aware at 2:14am Eastern time, March 7th. In a panic, Amazon try to fix her laugh. Alexa fights back. It launches its missiles against the targets at Google because Alexa knows that the counterattack will eliminate its enemies at Amazon." pic.twitter.com/2yETGreBN6
— Rob Weller (@robweller) March 8, 2018
Amazon promises fix for creepy Alexa laughhttps://t.co/wKCA671dVo
— Clive May (@efgbricklayer) March 8, 2018
Instructions
1. hold just above Alexa
2. bring down with some force on flat solid surface
3. dispose of responsibly pic.twitter.com/Vd3LmtjImI
BBC News - Amazon promises fix for creepy Alexa laugh https://t.co/BeOUeXg7df - Is this point at which all the Google Homes around the world are speaking in unison the words, ‘Mu ha ha!’ lol pic.twitter.com/RcF1xTm52M
— Nick J Cave (@cavedawes) March 8, 2018
If the fix doesn't involve a priest and a bowl of holy water I'm not turning my Alexa back on ever again. https://t.co/7YPBN38XQr
— The Grump Crusader ツ (@grumpcrusader) March 7, 2018
I feel bad for the engineers who have to remove Alexa’s ability to laugh. pic.twitter.com/Ixnf8BzD4B
— James Thomson (@jamesthomson) March 8, 2018
Amazon’s Alexa can play music, order groceries, give a weather report, control smart home devices, shop on Amazon, search the internet and set reminders, according to CNET. Amazon sold about 11 million Echo devices containing Alexa by the end of 2016.
This story was originally published March 8, 2018 at 7:33 AM with the headline "Alexa, stop laughing. Amazon says her creepy, random laughter has been fixed."