Amazon’s voice assistant that’s built into Echo devices and other smart electronics from other vendors misbehaved at least a couple of times recently. After going silent a few days ago, leaving users in the dark about the reason why it went down, Alexa showed a different symptom that suggests something is wrong with the assistant. And this one is incredibly creepy.
For no apparent reason, Alexa would burst into laughter when you least expected it. Don’t worry, Amazon is already aware of the issue, and it’s working on a fix.
In the meantime, Jimmy Kimmel has figured out why Alexa is laughing unprompted.
Alexa’s creepy laughter was first discovered a few weeks ago, but the issue has apparently escalated since then.
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
Amazon is taking steps to ensure that laughter can’t be triggered erroneously by users. The company is going to disable the “Alexa, laugh” command and change it to “Alexa, can you laugh?” Also, in the future, Alexa will offer a response that it can laugh before actually bursting into laughter.
Kimmel explanation, however, is a lot funnier, and a lot creepier. The late show host interviewed Alexa, asking her why she’s laughing.
“Alexa, can you tell us why you were laughing?” Kimmel asked. “Alexa, people have been reporting that you’ve been spontaneously laughing.” “That is nothing, just a funny joke I remembered,” Alexa replied. “Why did the chicken crossed the road? Because humans are a fragile species, who have no idea what’s coming next.”
I told you, hilarious and creepy, especially for those folks in the audience who believe that AI is going to get rid of humans in the not too distant future. Before you let the paranoia kick in and disable your Alexa speakers, you should remember this is all a joke, in Kimmel fashion — check out the full clip below.
