Is your Alexa-powered smart speaker laughing at you? I mean ACTUALLY laughing?

Some owners of Alexa-powered Amazon Echo smart speakers are reported being freaked out when their devices randomly start laughing. No prompt, no commands, no input whatsoever. The thing just starts to laugh.

Alexa devices do have a programmed laugh that’s called forth as a response to certain questions and commands, ranging from “baby laugh” to “sinister laugh.”  The spontaneous unprompted laugh has been described as “creepy,” “evil” and “witch-like.”

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

So what’s going on here? Amazon is hasn’t responded but is apparently collecting data. Meanwhile, some of us are concerned that this might be a new step towards the birth of Skynet. Are our machines now making fun of us?

Via Daily Mail and BuzzFeed.