This is interesting, the other day my wife was trying to get Siri to stop playing music on our HomePod and had to ask 3 times before she “laughed” and then stopped the music.
AI has already gone self-aware and the laugh virus is spreading across operating systems.
This would break my trust in the product. Having an always-on microphone in the home relies on there being absolute trust that the device is secure and functioning correctly.
Having a laugh come down the line without any prompting is not just creepy, but also a stark indication that something isn't right with the product or platform. It raises some questions:
Has the platform been hacked? and this is a resulting prank or someone letting you know that something isn't right with your device?
Is there dormant unchecked software available for exploitation, or running buggy code?
What other unexpected functions is Alexa doing? Since only the feedback can be noticed by the user.
None of these scenarios are good. I'd pick up that $50 puck and throw it in the bin - utterly not worth it.
The homepod is doing the same thing, it just says things, at first we thought someone said hey Siri and you get the dumb response that it can not process the request. This morning the wife and I were talking and we both know we did not prompt Siri either by saying it or doing it on a phone, but the homepod said very clearly "I'm sorry I could not find that hotel near by" which was odd to begin with, but indicated that the homepod can do some sort of hotel lookup.
Looks like ghosts are getting into the AI systems.
That would be Jeff Bezos. Laughing at the idiots willingly - nay paying for the privilege of - allowing him to listen to everything in their households.
Perhaps, but HomeKit seems stalled in the market place at the moment. Pretty much every smart home device works with Alexa and most do not seem compatible with HomeKit.
I've finally taken the plunge, after waiting two years to see what Apple would do, and purchased two Echo Dots. Unlike HomeKit they work with Hive and they work with Logitech's Harmony Hub so my lights, heating, smart plugs and all the devices in my home entertainment centre all just work with voice.
Apple could still catchup, but every month it gets harder. It's already Alexa first and then maybe Google Home which is sometimes followed up by HomeKit.
I got fed up of waiting for Apple to properly get into the space they bloody started. I began feeling like the Microsoft Phone users must have felt like when it was iOS first, then Android and then only sometimes Windows Phone.
I have to admit that I am mightily impressed with the Echo Dots so far. Setup was painless, almost Apple like actually. The microphones pick me up easily, even with ambient noise/the TV on. And best of all I nabbed them for just £30 each, one of the best investments I ever made, should have done it two years ago rather than wait.
For anyone else who is a primarily Apple based household and has held off waiting for Apple and HomeKit adoption, don't bother, not when what Amazon is offering is so cheap and works so well.
Oh, and before anyone decides that I probably don't have an Apple centric household, the MacBook Pro, 27" iMac, 2 X iPhones, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV would disagree with you.
Sounds like you have a pretty nice setup. My worry is, given how easily the cheaper iot devices can be hacked, that these off the shelf Alexa compatible devices would make my house an easy target. I’m hoping that’s not the case but given the statement of intent by Apple to not let that happen for HomeKit devices, I’m staying with Apple based home devices.
In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase “Alexa, laugh.” 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.
I'm having trouble imagining this laugh sound and no one seems to have recorded it (and I'm definitely not going to buy an Echo to find out), perhaps AI could run a small competition for the best description? Is it like Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) in “Lemony Snicket”, the inimitable Vincent Price at the end of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller" video, or - my favorite - Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) in the third “Matrix” film?
I'm having trouble imagining this laugh sound and no one seems to have recorded it (and I'm definitely not going to buy an Echo to find out), perhaps AI could run a small competition for the best description? Is it like Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) in “Lemony Snicket”, the inimitable Vincent Price at the end of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller" video, or - my favorite - Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) in the third “Matrix” film?
Currently it's "tee-hee," but I don't know if that was changed to something less menacing after this issue cropped up where if it thinks it hear "Alexa laugh" it could trigger the laugh response.
edit: There's a lot of jokey videos uploaded, but the laugh in this compilation video seems to be the authentic laugh. It definitely would be jarring to hear that when you didn't expect a laugh. Except an evil digital personal assistant movie to be in the works.
Is that like a "ha-ha, suckers!" kind laugh or a "Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha" kind of laugh?
Like a horror-movie chuckle of a young posessed girl. Seen it on the news this morning, very creepy. Would definitely sh*t ur pants if that played in a dark silent room at night.
My daughter has an animatronic cat toy that randomly purrs or meows. We're used to it now but there is no "off button", for the first few weeks it was petrifying at night lol.
There is no doubt in my mind Alexa is laughing at Siri. Siri is the most useless, annoying, frustrating, and janky piece of AI, I know of. Shame on Apple and shame on Siri!
Please just stop... and no.. shame on you for posting this BS.
While I disagree with his overall sentiment, I find it hard to think of another AI that is more annoying, frustrating or janky than Siri.
There is no doubt in my mind Alexa is laughing at Siri. Siri is the most useless, annoying, frustrating, and janky piece of AI, I know of. Shame on Apple and shame on Siri!
Please just stop... and no.. shame on you for posting this BS.
While I disagree with his overall sentiment, I find it hard to think of another AI that is more annoying, frustrating or janky than Siri.
@jcs2305 talks regularly with computers and believes that makes him superior so he can insult others with ad hominem attacks.
Yep, the Homepod did it again last night, without any prompting it just blurted out "There are no Alarms at this time" which I believe is related to home controls and it you have security system or water or leak detectors
We are getting a variety of strange sounds. Sometimes very soft music plays (fairly often) at night. On occasion we have gotten a voice counting up and down to/from 10 repeatedly. These are so bad we've had to remove the Echo from our bedroom. The music could be strange RF interference, but the counting???
Comments
Having a laugh come down the line without any prompting is not just creepy, but also a stark indication that something isn't right with the product or platform. It raises some questions:
- Has the platform been hacked? and this is a resulting prank or someone letting you know that something isn't right with your device?
- Is there dormant unchecked software available for exploitation, or running buggy code?
- What other unexpected functions is Alexa doing? Since only the feedback can be noticed by the user.
None of these scenarios are good. I'd pick up that $50 puck and throw it in the bin - utterly not worth it.Looks like ghosts are getting into the AI systems.
This has already been enabled for me.
edit: There's a lot of jokey videos uploaded, but the laugh in this compilation video seems to be the authentic laugh. It definitely would be jarring to hear that when you didn't expect a laugh. Except an evil digital personal assistant movie to be in the works.
My daughter has an animatronic cat toy that randomly purrs or meows. We're used to it now but there is no "off button", for the first few weeks it was petrifying at night lol.
#evillaughgate (if anyone cared about Amazon)