AFP, SAN FRANCISCOAmazon.com Inc on Wednesday promised to keep virtual assistant Alexa from spontaneously cackling, giving people eerie feelings about what the artificial intelligence might be plotting. Users of “smart” speakers with Alexa assistant software have expressed their fears on Twitter, posting video of speakers infused with the software laughing menacingly for no apparent reason. Darker posts wondered playfully whether fears about artificial intelligence turning on humans were coming real. Amazon said it looked into what was going on and found that sometimes Alexa mistakenly registers the phrase “Alexa laugh” and obeys. “Just brainstorming some blackmirror titles while Alexa laughs maniacally in the distance,” a Netflix tweet said, alongside a picture of a book shop overlaid with The Bookstore That Enslaved Humanity.

Source: Taipei Times March 08, 2018 16:04 UTC