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News March 7, 2018

Amazon says it's working to fix Alexa's laughing problem

WATCH: Amazon working to fix Alexa's laughing problem

Amazon said they are working to fix Alexa devices' laughter problem, after social media exploded Wednesday with users freaking out over what they described as random electronic laughter.

"In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase 'Alexa, laugh,'" Amazon told ABC News in a statement. "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 statement added.

PHOTO: Alexa, an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon's Lab126 at the Frontier Tech Forum, in December 2016.
picture alliance/Frank Duenzl/Newscom
Alexa, an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon's Lab126 at the Frontier Tech Forum, in December 2016.
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Many social media users shared their experiences today of Alexa "randomly" laughing, and "Alexa is freaking its owners out with random laughter and defiance" became a moment on Twitter this afternoon.

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