Amazon Figures Out Why Alexa Blew A Fuse Causing Echos To Burst Into Laughter
Yesterday we talked about a problem that was plaguing some devices powered by Amazon Alexa that would cause them to laugh suddenly and maniacally. Amazon promised at the time that it was working on a fix and it didn’t waste any time fixing the bizarre fits of laughter Alexa was experiencing. The reason that Alexa is laughing is more than a little creepy.
Amazon says that in rare circumstances Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase "Alexa, laugh" even when the phrase wasn't said. Creepy much? To eliminate false responses (and obnoxious laughing keeping you up at night) Amazon has changed the phrase required to make Alexa laugh to "Alexa, can you laugh." Amazon figures that phrase is less likely to generate false positives.
The phrase "Alexa, laugh" has been disabled as a trigger. If your nutty Alexa does laugh, rather than just launching into creepy laughter, Alexa will say "Sure, I can laugh" and then laugh. This may be the most bizarre error that Alexa has ever been part of; either that or someone at Amazon has trolled the entire Alexa community.
As we mentioned yesterday, there were numerous reports of Alexa randomly laughing on Twitter.
There was a random female laugh in my apartment... Its only me and my housemate home... He's a guy. Either Alexa is now self aware or we have a ghost... This might be my last tweet.
— Cameron Trout (@CamT_26) March 5, 2018
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
