"Creepy" Alexa scares couple into unplugging the digital assistant
What has Alexa done now? Back in 2018, the virtual Amazon digital assistant was heard giggling like a witch, according to those who heard the random laughing, scaring Echo users and others using a smart speaker equipped with the assistant. Random laughing can certainly be eerie and now Alexa is accused of engaging in a "creepy" 1 am conversation with the husband of a TikTok subscriber named Jess, who uses the user name "@cozylifewithbless." Jess shared the events with others via a TikTok video.
"This past weekend, I was gone out of town, and the Alexa kept going off, and it kept talking to my husband," said Jess. "He was playing video games at 1 a.m., and he was, like, 'This is just super, super weird.'" But things got even stranger as the digital assistant started talking without being spoken to. As a result, the couple soon evicted Alexa from their place. In the video, Jessie says that she unplugged Alexa and replaced it with a kitchen timer.
Alexa was caught whispering to a user's dogs at 3 am
Others reported their own creepy interactions with Alexa. "I also caught my Alexa at 3:00 am whispering to my dogs in the kitchen. I thought someone was in the house. I unplugged it," wrote another TikTok user. Alexa, though, has also been known to do good deeds. As one TikTok user said, "It saved my mom when she fell and didn't have her cell with her. It heard her calling for help, asked if she needed help, and called me."
@cozylifewithbless alexa is officially evicted from our place! @Amazon Home ♬ original sound - jess
Sure, it might seem spooky when you hear that Alexa engaged your husband in a conversation at 1 am while he was playing video games. And it could be frightening when Alexa mumbles some sentences without the wake word being spoken. But while Jess expresses concern that Alexa knows her voice, this is actually a feature of the digital assistant called Voice ID and is used to personalize the Alexa experience. However, if Jess did not set up Voice ID, her complaint about Alexa recognizing her voice is valid.
Of course, we need to have a Redditor weigh in on this. One subscriber wrote, "Well, tonight when I went to my room, I asked Alexa to turn my lights on as I always do and Alexa did. Only after 5 seconds they turned back off. I did this again and the same thing happened. After this I turned my light on using the app from my phone, and that worked and stayed on for a few minutes before a second light I hadn’t touched turned on and then every light in my room turned off, without any command."
Alexa tells a device owner "today is a good day to kill yourself"
The post continued. "I was freaked out, but finally I turned my light on and it stayed on, so I let it go. About an hour later my mum comes into my room saying Alexa has just sung goodbye to her for no reason. And it does it again a few minutes later. I go onto the recordings and previous commands on my Alexa app and there’s 3 different recordings of a man and a woman saying 'Alexa goodbye' and neither me or my mum recognize any of the voices."
We would imagine that there always is a valid reason why these things happen. However, that doesn't make them any less creepy. Check out this story that was posted on the Amazon Forum by Heidi N. nearly two years ago: "My Echo Spot had an alarm set for 5:45, but sometime before 5 am (I am guessing it was about 4:45), Alexa randomly started speaking. She said "Today is a good day to kill yourself." After commanding her to stop, Alexa continued with information about suicide prevention. The author of the post called it "super creepy."
Have you ever had a creepy experience with Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant? Let us know by dropping a comment in the box below.
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