News March 7, 2018

Amazon says it's working to fix Alexa's laughing problem

WATCH: Amazon working to fix Alexa's laughing problem

Amazon said they are working to fix Alexa devices' laughter problem, after social media exploded Wednesday with users freaking out over what they described as random electronic laughter.

"In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase 'Alexa, laugh,'" Amazon told ABC News in a statement. "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," the statement added.

picture alliance/Frank Duenzl/Newscom
Alexa, an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon's Lab126 at the Frontier Tech Forum, in December 2016.
Could Your Amazon Alexa Be Used Against You? Did Amazon leave a clue about HQ2 in Alexa Super Bowl commercial?

Many social media users shared their experiences today of Alexa "randomly" laughing, and "Alexa is freaking its owners out with random laughter and defiance" became a moment on Twitter this afternoon.