Amazon Echo users say the technology has taken a “bone-chilling” turn, with Alexa, the voice on the device, emitting random laughs and sometimes ignoring their commands entirely.
The Echo is alleged to be a time-saving device, with users able to give Alexa commands such as telling it to give them the current weather, play a song, or deliver the news.
However, some users are saying that the gadgets are acting strangely.
“Lying in bed about to fall asleep when Alexa ... lets out a very loud and creepy laugh,” said Gavin Hightower on Twitter.
“There’s a good chance I get murdered tonight.”
Another Twitter said that Alexa started laughing while he was having an office conversation “about pretty confidential stuff.”
“It was really creepy,” he added.
“I was trying to turn off some lights and they kept turned back on,” said one user. “After the third request, Alexa stopped responding and instead did an evil laugh.”
Another user said that an alarm came on through the system, as usual, to wake him up but when he asked Alexa to turn off the alarm, it “gave us the most chilling witch-like laugh.”
“Repeated instructions to ’shut off‘ ’stop playing’ ‘off’ go ignored and instructions to change volume to specific levels also go ignored,” said one.
“I will call ‘Alexa’ and the light turns on and goes off immediately after, giving me no time to say anything. When she does stay on long enough for me to say something such as ”stop the music“, she ignores me or will totally misinterpret my words,” said another user.