Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- An Alexa smart speaker reportedly made “guttural sounds” while counting numbers with their kids.
- When confronted, Alexa reportedly blamed the user’s environment for the spooky sounds.
- The issue was seemingly replicated several times by the affected individual, though there are no widespread online complaints detailing this problem.
Voice assistants like Alexa have a history of occasionally messing up. Earlier this year, for example, we’ve seen Alexa Plus gaslight a user after turning on a light unprompted. We now have another Alexa-based incident to add to the list, and it’s as spooky as it can get.
A video shared by Organic_Help7007 on Reddit shows the voice assistant randomly making “guttural” sounds, fit for a horror movie or an indie game. This reportedly happened while they were asking Alexa to count from 1 to 40 with their kids.
Needless to say, this entire experience appears to have scared the kids and understandably caused some alarm among the parents as well. For their part, the user claims they managed to replicate the issue at least 10 times, with Alexa in one instance noting that the sounds were due to something in the “environment,” which sounds a lot like gaslighting.
We’re seeing a couple of videos stitched together here, highlighting the sounds coming from Alexa during the counting process. Some breathing can be heard in between, though it’s the abnormal noise that is evidently more concerning.
As you would expect, this incident has led the family to unplug all the Alexa-powered smart speakers in their home, who claim to have reported the concerns to Amazon. For some additional context, the user apparently has access to Alexa Plus, so we cannot rule out one of the underlying AI models being the culprit here.
Another reader in the comments shares a similar issue with the voice assistant unprompted, so it looks like it may not be isolated. But with that being said, a couple of reports are hardly conclusive evidence of a broader problem.
One theory suggests the problem may be related to Alexa Plus expressive voice styles or something to do with counting. However, this remains unconfirmed at the moment. No one on the Android Authority team has been able to replicate this behavior on their Alexa-powered devices. We have reached out to Amazon for comment on the matter and will update the post with anything we hear back.
Until then, we recommend sticking with your Alexa-powered voice assistant, at least until it starts giving you spooky vibes. While the user posits this could be “a genuine paranormal phenomenon,” we’re not going that far (yet).
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