Is Alexa Laughing at You?

Laughter is generally a pleasant sound, unless of course that laughter comes from an unoccupied corner of your home.

At least this is what users of Amazon’s Echo and Echo Dot have found out in the last few weeks amid reports that voice-enabled Alexa has been laughing at users…unprovoked.

Reports of sudden laughter from the devices have been taking over the internet recently with users describing instances where the devices issue laughter often at decidedly unfunny times—like when one user was trying to fall asleep or another user was reportedly in the middle of a serious conversation.

One Reddit user detailed their problems with the Amazon Echo Dot a few weeks ago, saying, “We just added the echo dots two months ago. The dot we have in the master bath has twice now randomly played a track of a woman laughing at about 10 p.m. the first time I thought the fire tv was sending audio through it since I had been trying to sync them up to the tv, but tonight was completely random. No indication on the app that the device heard any command. We had the dot laugh several times and it wasn’t the laugh Alexa produces, but definitely sounded like a canned laugh, not like someone laughing live.”

In response to the number of complaints, Amazon believes it has determined what the source of the laughter is, explaining:

"In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase 'Alexa, laugh,'" Nate Michel, a spokesman for Amazon, wrote in an email. "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."

Considering the number of things I do in the course of a day that would likely invite laughter from observers (not of the “isn’t she funny” sort, but the kind that might instead invite the laughter of someone saying “take a look at this idiot”), it’s a good thing I unplugged Alexa long ago amid reports that Amazon was using its home assistant devices to listen in on users.

Paranoid as I am, the list of things I would do if I heard unprovoked laughter coming from my Amazon Echo begins and ends with the device being thrown out of a window.

Has Alexa laughed at you?