We all like to talk about AI and how it will augment human life in the future as we are already getting small previews of that today through our smartphones, smart home automation systems, smart speakers and so on.

Truth is, this is only a very, very tiny area of application of artificial intelligence and if you want to know the full scope of it, you should really read about it on your own time, because that list is absolutely huge!

There is another aspect that is talked about quite a bit and it relates to how there is a high chance that in the future, AI systems could go rogue and end up being a threat to our very existence. In fact, visionaries like Elon Musk think that there is only 10% chance that AI will end up being safe.

We have all seen in movies what a scary kind of world that would be where we are hunted down until the last one of us succumbs, ensuring the victory of the machines. Recently, some people got a teeny tiny glimpse of how freaky it would be when Amazon’s Alexa started misbehaving.

Alexa Creeps Out Users

For those of you who don’t know, Alexa is a virtual assistant developed by Amazon, just like how Siri is the virtual assistant developed by Apple. It is mostly used in the smart speakers that Amazon sells.

Alexa can do pretty much everything that you would expect a modern day virtual assistant to do and can be activated using a keyword. For example you say “hey, Siri” to activate Siri on your iPhones.

Recently however, thanks to a glitch in the Alexa software, it started getting activated on it own. Not only that, it started laughing randomly which sounded really creepy and also disobeyed direct commands from users!

Amazon was quick to address the issue though and changed how the commands work and the appropriate response that Alexa should give from now on.

Response From Users

If you are half asleep, comfortably on your bed, alone in your house and you suddenly hear a woman’s laughter in your room at 2 am at night, of course you are going to get freaked. I would simply run out of the house without a second thought!

The users who faced this issue with Alexa, took to social media to share their bizarre experiences and even reading those can be bone chilling. Most of the users quickly unplugged their devices, which was definitely a smart move! No electricity means no uprising of the machines!! haha You can read about some of these experience here.

This incident goes to show how quickly things can turn around when AI does go rogue some day. From being a faithful, virtual companion to being a threat to life, things can take a U turn in a matter of minutes.

But that probably won’t happen for a long, long time so we can still relax and plan for a future where AI works for us and not the other way around.