Amazon Echo owners have noticed their smart speakers unexpectedly erupting into fits of laughter.
Understandably, Echo owners have been more than a little creeped-out by the virtual assistant randomly giggling to itself in silent rooms.
Amazon has promised a software fix for the problem.
A spokesperson for the US company told Metro: “In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase ‘Alexa, laugh’.”
In an effort to stop the misunderstanding, Amazon has confirmed it will change the voice command from “Alexa, laugh” to “Alexa, can you laugh?”.
Amazon believes this will reduce the possibility of Alexa mishearing the phrase.
The Seattle-based company will also change Alexa’s response from a giggle to “Sure, I can laugh” followed by laughter.
That should stop the smart speakers bursting into fits of “scary” giggles without input from anyone in the room.
However, some aren’t completely satisfied with the solution proposed by Amazon.
The Inquirer reports that Alexa’s laughs can sometimes be completely random and triggered in “silent” rooms.
If this is accurate, it’s unclear why the smart assistant sprung into life in these instances.
When Alexa hears the wake phrase “Alexa”, voice commands are beamed to the cloud for processing to determine what action is being requested.
According to the BBC, this stokes a fear of “eavesdropping, unintended or otherwise”.