Has Alexa snapped? If you're one of the millions of Alexa owners, you've noticed some odd behaviors, maybe even more than once you’ve wondered just how long it would be before our AI overlords rise up and put us down.
All across the Internet this week, we've been hearing stories about Alexas breaking out with unbidden, evil-sounding laughter. Amazon Alexa users began reporting that their devices are laughing, creepily, on their own–so frequently that the phenomenon became a Twitter Moment.
The laugh, described by some as “witch like” was reported to sometimes happen without the device being “woken” up.
Others reported the laugh occurring when they asked Alexa to perform a different task, such as playing music.
Relax. Your Alexa isn't haunted (probably). Your Alexa isn't going to murder you in your sleep (it doesn't have hands or feet). And, your Alexa isn't going insane.
Amazon acknowledged the issue quickly. The company implied the problem was that Alexa was just mishearing people, so the simpler command “Alexa, laugh,” was changed to “Alexa, can you laugh?” Furthermore, Alexa will no longer just laugh when you ask her to. She’ll say “Sure, I can laugh,” and then laugh.
The company says the latter phrase is “less likely to have false positives,” or in other words the Alexa software is likely to mistake common words and phrases that sound similar to the one that makes Alexa start laughing.
In almost all cases, if Alexa seems to be acting weirdly, it's not actually the behavioral component of Alexa's AI mind. It's almost undoubtedly the perception component.
That said, there are commands that could cause folks to think Alexa's lost its marbles. As of the time of writing this article, there are four third-party skills that relate to "scream."
Amazon skills for "scream"
The "scream prank" skill will initiate upon the phrase "Alexa, scream prank." After that, it will wait sixty seconds, and then scream. That allows the prankster to set up the prank, leave the room, and then torture whomever happens to be near the device when it screams.
The "spooky scream" is even more diabolical. It's initiated with the phrase, "Alexa, ask Spooky Scream to start in two minutes." You can adjust the time delay. As such, you could ask Alexa to start the scream in ten minutes, leave the room, and have the prank trigger way, way after you've left.
