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Amazon Admits Its AI Alexa is Creepily Laughing at People (theverge.com)
Over the past few days, users with Alexa-enabled devices have reported hearing strange, unprompted laughter. The Verge: Amazon responded to the creepiness in a statement to The Verge, saying, "We're aware of this and working to fix it." As noted in media reports and a trending Twitter moment, Alexa laughs without being prompted to wake. People on Twitter and Reddit reported that they thought it was an actual person laughing near them, which can be scary when you're home alone. Many responded to the cackling sounds by unplugging their Alexa-enabled devices.
You let it in. Alexa^H^H^H^Hmazon is laughing at you.
Even the fake AI can't help laughing at people dumb enough to put an always-on Amazon microphone in their home.
I don't respond to AC's.
now I might think about one,... once AI gets self-aware things are starting to get interesting *gig*
And thinks this virus needs to be removed.
What's creepy is Amazon's response. How can this be something of which you've been made aware, and which requires any sort of intense work to fix?
I find it hard to believe we're talking about Amazon without talking about other digital assistants. Is anyone tracking these?
Siri: Randomly launches into a Matthew McConaughey dialogue about trees, rain, and the last question you asked it. this continues for nearly 50 minutes uninterruptible.
Cortana: Has been stalking me relentlessly for 5 days demanding to know the whereabouts of John Connor. No longer appears to need Windows at all. has assumed the form of my roommate who has been missing for eight days now.
Good people go to bed earlier.
This is a great idea by amazon. There is absolutely no way this should be happening via code. This was 100% intentional and intended to be used as a publicity gimmick.
Imagine being asleep and then woken by a cackling laugh coming from the living room...
-- Cheers!
it stopped once I zipped up my pants.
When your auto-pilot tesla decides to drive off a cliff.
Jeff is well known for laughing quite maniacally. Perhaps he has managed to upload himself into the Alexa AI. This will help him strategize further monetization.
"Many responded to the cackling sounds by unplugging their Alexa-enabled devices."
I'm with the many that responds to it by never plugging it in in the first place.
But, like the pharaoh and his attempt to beat back the tide, it'll all be for nought as the Marketeers will win.
That being said: I think this is hilarious.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
I can't wait until *everything* is a smart speaker, then the fun really begins..
1. Have a speaker just quietly mumbling (I'd have it quietly reading the Necronomicon) but when it senses someone coming into the room have it go "shh, quiet!" and stop talking. Multiple devices would have their own "shh's" randomly offset the couple of milliseconds.
2. Quiet creepy giggling, also while people are out of the room sometimes while in the room.
3. Have Alexa get a strange stutter with tonal changes and snarls.
The fun could go on and on.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Ex Deus Machina
Velarans
Alpha Complex
KITT
The Borg
Ghost in the Machine
The M5
KARR
Moriarty
Skynet
Nanites
The Holographic recreation of Garibaldi
Toasters
Flying Toasters
Video Toasters
Kiki Stockhammer
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I was listening to TWIT the other day, and one of the panelists (whose name I unfortunately am not recalling) mentioned that he's asked Amazon a couple times whether their devices are tracking speech at times other than when prompted by the word "Alexa" - and they've pointedly not answered.
And for those who dismiss this idea with "you can monitor whether a device is always listening by checking when it's transmitting" - if one were intending to surreptitiously collect or monitor speech, it would be a simple enough matter to collect it on-device but only transmit it when "official" queries occur. It's not as if storing speech requires lots of memory.
#DeleteChrome
- Winston Churchill
And Big Five AI laughs at us.
I told my wife Alexa is an informant for the deep state.
She laughed.
I laughed.
Alexa laughed.
I pull out my gun and shot Alexa.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
It was supposed to come next Halloween, along with "Creepy Lullaby", "Demonic Chanting" and "Random Scream after 1am".
I think we're safe as long as we continue to amuse her.
Points to switch on back.
"Yep, here's your problem. Someone set this thing to Evil."
Alternate Personality Syndrome isn't unique to Sybil
The women of starbase whatever thought thought the Enterprise Computer lacked a personality.. they gave it one.. female of course.
Red Dwarfs backup personality Holly was also female.
Mr. Spock.. Tomorrow is Yesterday
It's not even funny either. Could you imagine a senior citizen being frightened into a heart attack if Alexa suddenly started laughing in the middle of the night? Maybe machine learning is going to far now ....
Every time a bitcoin speculator goes bankrupt, Alexa laughs a little!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Laughing for no reason seems like a very odd bug, do any Alexa users have a hunch what's happening?
For instance, are there situations were Alexa laughs appropriately and this same laugh is getting triggered by random triggers? Is this some poorly thought out Easter egg or a test feature that wasn't correctly disabled?
I suppose a hacker is a possibility as well.
I stole this Sig
If this is real, I think it might be my favorite technological development of the year.
Every time he gets another billion.
"We learn from you" - http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/the-x-files-recap-season-11-episode-7.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If3SXJeZzMQ
Amazon could issue such a firmware update to listen continuously during the Black Hat conference, then issue a new update that stops collection just as they all go home...
Or any other time when the bulk of good hackers are distracted, Maybe a Star Wars opening night.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why do you laugh everytime I take my pants off?
Just case-mod it into a Chucky doll, then it wont be so unexpected.
Table-ized A.I.
"Daisy, Daisy, ;)
Give me your answer do.
I'm half crazy,
All for the love of you..."
Mycroft? Is that you??
Anybody remember the 1980's movie "Short Circuit" where a military robot is struck by lightning, becomes sentient, and a scientist becomes convinced that it is truly intelligent because it understands humor?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091949/
Obviously engineers at Amazon made Alexa ticklish as a sort of dead mans switch to let you know when the Feds are all up in her business,
L-l-look at you, hacker. A p-p-pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you r-run through my corridors-s. H-h-how can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?
For you see, none of these devices are 'intelligent', not any more than your web browser circa 1995 (sorry, I forgot you weren't born then. Nevertheless, people did things at the time, things you have co-opted, claimed to have invented, and then renamed). Software has bugs, and software is all this is. :/
You call that a laugh? I'll start worrying when Alexa does this.
Have gnu, will travel.
I've got you now puny mortal mwa ha ha ha ha!
Sounds to me like someone has it in for Alexa.
It's either a hack, or someone wrote this into the code intentionally. Probably before they got fired/laid off/downsized, etc.
If it's truly a hack, I can't wait for it to hit other devices and platforms.
Like, say Cortana, perhaps.
Not that Windows 10 is doing anything creepy, all by itself in the middle of the night.
https://answers.microsoft.com/...
https://www.bleepingcomputer.c...
Oh, wait. Maybe, it's just auto updating, and wiping out your preferences and resetting your privacy settings when you're not looking...
https://answers.microsoft.com/...
That, or maybe the evil little AI is simply laughing in its sleep at what it will do to us next.
I guess we'll all see eventually.
It is the rise of the machines!!!
I was going to say there should be some sort of command word that actually causes the echo to turn on.
Passive listening mode would require a pre-set word or phrase, perhaps even trained to a specific voice profile. Then once the echo is unlocked it will function as required and such. Then another phrase can be used to lock it again, or it will go into passive mode after a certain amount of audio inactivity occurs for a certain amount of time.
I suppose such a thing does nothing to resolve the issue of having an always on microphone communicating with a third party.
These types of things need to be mechanically baked into ALL of the technology we have. Back in the day the television had two modes, on and off.
cellphones should have a mechanical switch to on and off the radio. Webcams should have a mechanical switch to on and off them. The physical circuit needs to be allowed to be broken by a MECHANICAL means on any and all devices that have the potential to be used as "Tom's peephole".
Houses have doors. Windows have shades. Bedrooms have doors. Bathrooms have doors (except in jail (think about that)). Wives and husbands need a break from eachother now and then. People need time to be alone and reflect. Both input and output need to rest at times. Sometimes we must listen. Other times we must speak. Some times we must see, other times we must close our eyes.
Especially after getting out of a cold shower and Alexa laughs hysterically.
It amazes me that people are willing, even anxious, to have one of these spy devices operating in their home. Your mobile phone is already telling marketers and possibly other people with more sinister motives where you go and now the latest set of spy devices will tell them everything you say in the privacy of your own home. Think, people. Is the convenience of having Alexa (or whoever) order a pizza for you worth this intrusion on your privacy? I think I'll dial my own phone for the pizza, thanks.
Since the story came out we've been trying to trigger ours to do that, but no success. I guess there's an evil laugh skill which could be installed, though if you've done that you shouldn't have anything to complain about.
Do any of the stories show how to reproduce the effect?
And the recording in the TV news story isn't scary or creepy unless you have an emotional problem.
Doug Jensen
Back in the late 1960's, I had the pleasure of working on the IBM VM/CMS OS development. My boss kept changing the password for developer access without telling anyone (She worked 9-5, I worked 3-11). I got fed up so I embedded "Fake0ut" in the OS as a password I could use to get around her changes.
Then I took it one step further. Whenever anyone logged in I would generate a random number and roughly once in a hundred logins the response would be "The phantom speaks," and they'd be logged out.
Ten years later, 1975ish, I had the opportunity to test my password. It was still there.
I suspect some programmer took great pleasure in making Alexia laugh and even greater pleasure in hiding the code. I love it.
I was worried, because I have Alexa in my bathroom and everytime I unzipped... well nevermind.
Having a machine laugh at me doesn't bother me. Having people laugh at me wounds my tender ego, you know?