If you've been hearing the disembodied voice of a laughing young woman or child in your home lately, there's (probably) no need to call a ghost hunter.
According to The Verge, Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that "Alexa," the voice of Echo smart speakers, may cackle unprompted from time to time.
In a statement to Scripps National, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the company is changing how to make Alexa laugh.
"In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase 'Alexa, laugh,'" Amazon said. "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."
A number of users caught Alexa's laughter on video and posted the clips on social media, saying the laughter appeared to be unprompted, often coming in the middle of the night.
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
@amazonecho alone in the dark kitchen, with no trigger, a sudden creepy laugh emerges and freaks out owners #justwrong. Replay: pic.twitter.com/vR684u8mbN
— anne (@anniebonannieTN) February 21, 2018
Some Echo users responded by turning off their devices. Other users confirmed hearing laughter on Reddit forums.
Random laughter from echo dot?? from r/amazonecho
It's not clear when Amazon will fix the issue behind the laughter. But if you're still hearing disembodied laughter in a couple of months, it might be time to move.
