Amazon’s home assistant Alexa is normally the strong, silent type when you’re not talking to it.
But reports popped up on social media this week that show her breaking character and bursting out into laughter, for no apparent reason.
Twitter user @CaptHandlebar posted a video of the incident, saying it sounded like a kid laughing nearby.
Others reported similar incidents.
Alexa is programmed to laugh – when you tell it to, but it’s not supposed to do it unprompted. And users say it’s not the programmed Alexa laughter.
That’s a far cry from when Alexa lost its voice for a Super Bowl commercial.
WATCH: Amazon promotes digital assistant Alexa in 2018 Super Bowl ad
Reddit user ema_chad said she heard a woman laughing, while @CaptHandlebar’s video sounds like a child’s laughter.
Amazon hasn’t replied to a request for comment from Global News, but in a statement to the Verge and CNBC, officials said it was aware of the issue and are working on a fix.
The reports of laughter prompted many other incidents of Alexa speaking up without any prompts, and they get creepier than just laughter.
“Totally unprompted, our Amazon Echo/Alexa started talking,” Twitter user @HeyItsKamo wrote. “And then I realized it was listing off local cemeteries and funeral homes? I’d rather it laugh at me.”
“Mine whistled upstairs in my bedroom. No one’s home besides me and my dogs,” Twitter user @Supermom1251 wrote.
This isn’t Alexa’s first mishap — a unit in Britain ordered cat food after a commercial, without its owner telling it to, and there have been other reports of the digital assistant ordering items.
Comments