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.
Could Your Amazon Alexa Be Used Against You? Did Amazon leave a clue about HQ2 in Alexa Super Bowl commercial?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