'I thought a kid was laughing behind me': Amazon's Alexa has been caught randomly laughing at people

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-08/amazon-to-fix-alexa-laugh/9527412

 

"Open the pod bay doors Alexa."

"Ha, ha, ha ... "

 

"Amazon have finally figured out why Alexa keeps laughing creepily at you...

Amazon are working on a solution/exorcism, which seems to involve changing a command - “Alexa, laugh” was what was required to get her to laugh before, and it’s possible that that combination of syllables just comes up a lot in an unplanned manner, something Amazon refer to as a ‘false positive’. Maybe everyone who’s experienced this problem was chatting about retired US football player Alexi Lalas just before it happened...

From now on Amazon are changing it to “Alexa, can you laugh?” and encouraging people to talk about Carlos Valderrama instead"

https://www.shortlist.com/tech/alexa-amazon-echo-laughing-creepy-why/348823

 

It was on the news this morning that many reported the laughing occurred in the middle of the night - no one in the room was talking. So it is not a combination of syllables.

These devices, by default, are always listening to everything going on in the room. For that reason, they need to be driven over 3 times and thrown in the trash bins.

 

She was probably texting.

 

She was laughing with them, not at them!

Not sure anyone deserves bad things to happen to them (except guilty bad guys). But I do think people who fail to do their homework - to understand how these "Internet connected" "listening" devices actually work - get what they asked for. And that is a device that listens to everything and sends that data back to Apple, Amazon, or Google. And everyone knows these are totally trustworthy companies that would NEVER use that personal information for marketing purposes and their networks could NEVER be hacked by bad guys.

 

Maybe someone at Amazon thought so too

@Bill_Bright - I agree with the crush and trash advice. Or just say no to them, from the start.

 

Which is exactly why I would not get the Google device. Not even for free. ***** Goolag.

 

This is hilarious I knew somthing like this was coming, I'm sure we'll be hearing more in time.

 

I need a young geek and an old geek.

Mrk

 

Laughing Alexa = "nerd music"

 

Yeah, just the digital version of this :

http://heckledbyparrots.com/blog/2009/01/top-five-things-your-parrot-shouldnt-say/

 

Haha

 

Not to mention your 1-2 year old

 

Next, when making love you will get a laugh.
Made for the brain-dead.

 

You've obviously never lived with young children

 

... Getting changed in the room on your own.

 

Life imitating art ... imitating life

~ Copyrighted Image Removed ~

I spoke too soon, it had to come.

You Can Soon Own a HAL 9000 Replica That Uses Amazon Alexa to Control Your Home, Dave ~ Gizmodo

https://gizmodo.com/you-can-soon-own-a-hal-9000-replica-that-uses-amazon-al-1823648187

 

So hey, it'll get confused, set fires, and then lock you inside

 

In addition to the linguistic fix (See post #3 above):

"...The company also said that instead of simply laughing when asked, the digital assistant, which is accessible through its line of Echo and Fire devices, will first acknowledge the request, saying, 'Sure, I can laugh.'.."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/business/alexa-laugh-amazon-echo.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=20&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/business/alexa-laugh-amazon-echo.html&eventName=Watching-article-click

LOL

 

Was also mentioned in the story linked in #1.

 

Amazon Alexa says 'I see people dying'; owner freaks out
June 25, 2018
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/w...ee-people-dying-owner-freaks-out-2630261.html

 

So is that a quote? Google is saturated with Alexa links, so And I find nothing at https://www.goodreads.com/

 

That's creepy!