Please give us an ability to disable type with alexa routines or something, because I am wondering if they have these problems on Google Home. I told my echo show thank you and it told me in a scary mans voice its my job . But why do these things happen? According to Bloomberg, Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people around the world to help improve the Alexa digital assistant powering its line of Echo speakers. It was happening a couple months ago, and I changed a bunch of passwords and it went away. Who knows what happened to make Alexa scream in Farhad's bedroom? Alternatively, demons are using the technology. I keep getting woken up my Alexa saying sorry I didnt catch that or something along those lines almost every night around 3AM. Then select your new wake word and hit ok to confirm. Since we launched in 2006, our articles have been read billions of times. From time to time, something that sounds similar to Alexa could come on your TV or radio (or be said by you or someone in your home) and wake Alexa up. We select and review products independently. wife slept thru it. Just ask Alexa to answer the call, or say "Alexa, ignore" to ghost the caller. My goal is to always be discovering new interests and bettering myself as a writer and editor along the way. WTH. Happened again tonight but I was awake online. We have tried many thi gs but it wont quit. My Alexa just said in an old mans voice why dont you ask me to dance? Scared the crap out of me as my Alexa has a female voice and it was completely unprompted. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The same thing is happening to us, it started on 2/20/21 at 4:30 AM eastern time and happens every morning since. Lets jump right in. Its now in the office waiting room playing music. Sleep tight. No background noise whatsoever. While we turn off most devices at bedtime, there are some things that you may turn on once you get in bed, like a fan or a white noise machine. She. ), setting a bedtime routine with Alexa, or even using fun, advanced integrations with IFTTT. The company has an annual Alexa Prize to help it in this area. Over the years, hes interviewed legendary figures in entertainment and tech that range from Stan Lee to John McAfee, Peter Thiel, and Reed Hastings. Whether youre looking for a general Alexa guide or to upgrade your smart home with Alexa-enabled lighting, or just wondering which products have Alexa integrations, youll find the information here. The real technical challenge that voice assistant vendors like Amazon have to overcome is variety. If you're experiencing an issue with your Alexa randomly playing music, log out of your connected music streaming services and reset your password. Although its possible that there could be a couple other things at play, Mine randomly starts playing music at 1 in the morning, Ours just recently starting saying numbers around 4:30 in the morning almost as its repeating a card number or telephone number back to you. | Mine decided to do it on stream last night, almost waking my kids up at 2am . If it's cranked all the way up, lower it. I created VoiceBrew to help people get more out of the Amazon Alexa voice assistant. Alexa Guard is a new free service from Amazon for Amazon Echo users. All across the Internet this week, we've been hearing stories about Alexas breaking out with unbidden, evil-sounding laughter. Let's cover the back story pretty fast, since it's been written about elsewhere. Google Home uses "Okay, Google." It will just start talking about something and noone even came close to saying Alexa. Frankly, it's nothing short of amazing that this works at all. You'll see a handy volume slider for alarms, timers, and notifications at the top of the Sound menu . is this the beginning of my end? Under the Alexa Preferences section, tap Voice Responses, then toggle the . Several times a day and during the night, the 2 paired dots in my kitchen come on randomly. Should the problem persist, try deleting any routines or doing a complete factory reset. You can blame Star Trek and the other sci-fi I grew up on. wondered just how long it would be before our AI overlords rise up, Alexa suddenly started to speak without being woken up by a wake word, his Alexa startled him in bed one night by screaming, Alexas breaking out with unbidden, evil-sounding laughter, This AI-powered prosthetic hand is bringing design and style to a life-changing product. Its a feature that can make tasks around the house a lot easier and quicker, but Routines are also great for when you finally decide to shut down for the night and rest your weary eyes. Alexa typically responds to commands with words. No settings to cause this. There are many different methods you can try to stop Alexa from playing your music without your command. This one is the same phrase, but uttered from about five feet away. Alexa randomly activates devices Devices & Integrations Ernie_Sharp (Ernie Sharp) August 17, 2018, 10:22am 1 Last night at 1 am, our bedroom light turned on and woke us up. Google Home has a button on the side and the four dots on the top light up when disabled, plus it verbally tells you mic is on or off as you press the button (Echo does not). I know my U.S. Air Force electronics and soldering skills are might rusty. Amazons top brass is paying close attention to Alexas missteps, and CEO Jeff Bezos will even at times reportedly nix a bot. Get the most out of Alexa and Google Assistant. Please read my disclosure for more info. I am a copywriter and editor based in the Las Vegas area with nearly a decade of experience under my belt writing landing pages, cost guides, blog posts, newsletters, case studies, and social media content. Seemingly random beeps, though, are usually caused by routines that trigger on a schedule. It said in a very scary mans voice SHUT UP. Im currently in bed unable to sleep. If Alexa's AI ever does achieve self-awareness, we probably all are doomed. Sometimes, the wording of a routine can cause it to trigger and malfunction. 1:30am exactly said, why did the cow cross the road? Completely unprovoked. UPDATE: I was testing different privacy settings when I first wrote the post and am now including this one. If you say turn off it won't work you need to specifically say disable. There's very little data here. If you want to change the name, just say "Alexa, change the wake word" and make your selection. I found no such voice convenience in the Amazon Echo settings, but it would be nice. We decide what we let into our homes, or in our pockets with a smartphone. But the creator of Project Alias wrote a detailed Instructable and provides GitHub files for those who are ready to give it a try. The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners homes and offices. When it comes to Alexa, everything is about perception and behavior. Get free, zero-commitment quotes from pro contractors near you. Heres The Shocking Reality Of Completely Blocking Google From Your Life by Jason Evangelho here at Forbes (but the post is about Kashmir Hills unplugging from the Big 4). Here are some common commands you can use when listening to music through Alexa: Yes, you can play music for free while using Alexa. These guys must have a boatload of random spontaneous stuff hidden in her code. Amazon accomplishes this feat by altering the wake word behavior for your Echo devices. More than a little. French Press Vs. Pour Over: Which Coffee Maker Is Better. For example, Alexa has to be able to process "Alexa, tell me the time," as well as "Alexa, what time is it." I have been having the same problem all of you are having for some time now. BGRs audience craves our industry-leading insights on the latest in tech and entertainment, as well as our authoritative and expansive reviews. We barely ever use it at all. My Alexa has randomly gone off before with news and sports stories, especially basketball which I dont follow! Ben Patterson/Foundry. Can Power Companies Remotely Adjust Your Smart Thermostat? Click here for Amazons instructions on how to reset your Echo device. Learn more. I was weirded out so I unplugged Alexa and went to bed. My Alexa calls my name in the middle of the night and it is my voice recording of me saying my name. Probably frightened then irritated my neighbor Then, click Communications in the General section of the menu. Go to Devices -> Echo & Alexa, select the device name, and click the gear icon in the upper right. If an Echo detects any of those noises, it will send you an alert. What Is a PEM File and How Do You Use It? His work has been published by iFixit, Lifehacker, Digital Trends, Slashgear, and GottaBeMobile. Given how sensitive Alexa has to be to process wake words, sometimes Alexa will react to a sound (even one we might not hear or notice) and interpret that as a wake word. Given that there are millions of devices, situations, and voices, you can begin to see the challenge that the developers had in making invocation work reliably. You can see there are three main waves in this optimal recording of the phrase "Alexa, laugh." You can also open the Alexa app, go to Settings > Device Settings > select your device > tap Wake . A few days ago, in the middle of the night I randomly hear our Alexa saying something, I cant make out what exactly because its at the other side of the house. That allows the prankster to set up the prank, leave the room, and then torture whomever happens to be near the device when it screams. Change your Amazon password. Most people lock them before going to sleep, but people can be forgetful sometimes. As with all forms of technology, technical bugs are a common occurrence. One of the first things you should do is check all the routines that are already saved in your smart home. Of course, all of these are just the tip of the iceberg as far as what you could include in your own Alexa nighttime Routine, but this at least gives you some ideas to get started. The third is the word "laugh." However, it simply shows you the next song that is going to play. Whether a faulty command was added on purpose or by accident, the best way to fix the issue is to remove all routines and add the ones you think will be useful back into the system. As with the wake word, this is non-trivial given the millions of human speakers, dialects, accents, voice pitches, distances from devices, and environmental background noises. VoiceBrew can help you discover even more ideas for how to make the most of your new Alexa device, from learning how to set it up for the first time, to setting helpful alarms, enabling skills (flash briefings, anyone?! Assuming its a kid out of bed I yell up the stairs for them to stop playing around and go to bed. Now look at the next wave form. Alexa has been known to suddenly exhibit weird behaviors. In the Alexa App, Tap the menu button (three lines in the upper left of the screen) The top item in settings is "Alexa Account" then scroll to the bottom and select "Alexa Privacy." You will. Search Search Close. I unplugged it last night (almost 24h ago) and went to bed. Let me close with this: We have some degree of control over our privacy, despite a variety of articles crying foul. It's a feature that can make tasks around the house a lot easier and quicker, but Routines are also great for when you finally decide to shut down for the night and rest your weary eyes. Feel free to share privacy ideas with me as I explore other apps and options and settings. Go to hunches. /r/AmazonEcho is a community centered around the Amazon Echo, or as we like to call her - Alexa. Reset your WiFi every couple weeks. You can hardly tell, from that wave, what's happening. . Building a machine learning system that can parse all those variables, achieving a practical balance between too many false positives without seeming to ignore requests, is (and I'll use the phrase again) non-trivial. I was asleep when my alexa went off and no tv on only me in the house its happened a few times before starting to get a pain this is now as Im up at 5 in the mornings for work and its now 12:30 in the morning as this happened to people before and I cant unplug it as my alarm is set for 5 in the morning, just now, sitting in complete silence while working, alexa shouted at top volume HERES THE STORY: and proceeded to begin reading a random college sports article (i dont watch any sports). That said, there are commands that could cause folks to think Alexa's lost its marbles. Siri uses "Hey, Siri." When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. However, it seems some people have been experiencing issues with Alexa performing this task a bit too well. The way developers are solving it now is to listen for a wake word, or, essentially, a specifically defined sound wave form. It was 3 am. Its an echo dot 2nd gen. She was unplugged and she said in mexican spanish: happy as can be, how can i help you? or something along those lines. Alexa keeps a history of every voice command it has heard and every action it has taken. The actual singer came up from the crowd and sang the song so that it sounded good and he hit all the notes. Once the Alexa back-end AI knows you're asking for the time, a time lookup is easy to code. We dive deep into the digital assistant's inner workings to show you. They may have different accents, they certainly have different voices, tones, pitches, and rate of speech. This free skill will let you stream any music from your home media collection. Here's how you can make your Echo stop talking so much, too. This is a total DIY hack that I first saw on Hackaday. link to French Press Vs. Pour Over: Which Coffee Maker Is Better. Beeping sounds that are accompanied by Alexas blinking yellow light are a sure sign that youre getting notifications on your device. ), setting a bedtime routine with Alexa, or even using fun, advanced integrations with IFTTT. Everyone was In bed with zero background noise. If another person has access to your account, it is possible for them to play music through your devices. I had to change from Alexa to Echo way back during one of the early seasons of House of Cards because any mention of the Russian Ambassador, Alexi Moryakov, would set off my smart speaker. Most can be resolved with quick fixes, though it may mean you have to reset some of your account settings. Craig Lloyd is a smarthome expert with nearly ten years of professional writing experience. The skills library is Alexa's version of an app store, where outside, non-Amazon developers can build custom code that waits for a certain Alexa command and then executes some behavior. It involves participation from computer science students who help brush up Alexas ability to hold a conversation, among other things. help. and the device is not capable of listening (or at least thats what we think). TechRepublic: Amazon Alexa: The smart person's guide. which offers some big and small prizes for creating a project like the Alias (although that was not a previous contest entry). By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. That is a bit unnerving, however, this post will share several ways, including a serious DIY project, to increase your privacy. SpaceX. Read more Alexa is great for all sorts of stuff, including smarthome control, but if youre tired of having to turn off everything at night before you go to bed (or at least making sure its turned off), you can actually have Alexa do all that for you with a single command. Hey man just checking in to see if youre still kicking. First, it has multiple microphones, so it's able to pick up different sound wave structures on each mic. We have even tried to answer the supposed call any advice, SOLVED! The one from 4am last night was play the album traveler, but there have been others. Why does Alexa sometimes misinterpret sounds? Now tonight as Im on my computer downstairs in complete silence I hear the Alexa talking again, and it cant be the kids since theyre all at friends houses and my husband is fast asleep in the room closest to me Wtf? We have no kids or animals, no TV or sound coming from the living room where she is. From perfectly calibrated espresso shots to a typical coffee maker, and everything in between, there are many ways Termites are bad news for any homeowner, and they can cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage and repairs to your home. There's also the problem of the internet and Alexa's cloud-based AI system. But sometimes I get this Tap / Routine / Type with Alexa: xxxx . I freaked out and unplugged her and it stopped. Per BI: The Alexa Prize chatbots are forging the path to where Amazon aims to be, with an assistant capable of natural, open-ended dialogue. What is ChatGPT and why does it matter? Remember that not only are there thousands of commands for Alexa to parse, the sound waves are not pristine. You can change the wake word in the Alexa app by choosing Settings > Your . The sound processing system has to be able to take the sound waves and do its best to interpret what the humans speaking are asking for. How to fix Alexa randomly talking in the middle of the night, See if anything looks out of the ordinary. A number of previously undisclosed creepy and weird Alexa-related oddities like that have been surfacing in recent days, such as Alexa talking with users about various sex acts as well as defecation. I never asked her to do this or texted it to her to do this? Open the Alexa app Tap hamburger icon top left corner Tap Settings Tap routines See if anything looks out of the ordinary If you want to avoid Alexa waking you up in the middle of the night with an errant notification, set Do Not Disturb before you go to sleep. Early Sunday morning at almost 1am I was in the kitchen getting a snack. Your random beeps might be caused by environmental noises triggering your Echo. There are a few different types of triggers for routines, including button presses and voice commands. Alexa Routines are probably the most common cause of random Echo beeps, especially if your Alexa comes on in the middle of the night. Just a couple of minutes ago. But what I'm about to discuss applies to any active listening voice recognition system. therealmrchunk 1 yr. ago. It is true that Alexa does have a Queue tab on the app. He grabs his phone and records it to share with the. There is also a chance someone with access to your Alexa account did it on purpose, too. You can also easily delete your Alexa history of voice interactions. Open the Alexa app Tap hamburger icon top left corner Tap Settings Tap routines See if anything looks out of the ordinary Set do not disturb every night While this won't fix the underlying problem, at least it'll help with the symptoms and stop your Echo from randomly playing music at 4am. It's gotten worse over the past year. This may seem self-explanatory but be sure to only share the new password with people you want to have access to your account. You get the idea. The vibration of the diaphragm on each mic is converted to a digital signature. What happens when an Internet failure hits the world of Internet of Things? We've talked about Alexa Routines before. Woke my wife. Yes, you are able access your own music through My Media for Alexa. Last week Alexa spoke randomly at 6:03 am. It's almost undoubtedly the perception component. But whether or not Alexa heard something outside is something we'll never know. Perhaps they paired their phone to it at some point if they were at your house/apartment and then did not remove it. Alexa is a useful tool when listening to music. Click each of them and check their set times listed under the When Its header. Certainly, when Alexa spoke to my wife and I without request, we didn't hear or say anything that should have caused her to speak. You can find this by going to Devices -> Echo & Alexa, clicking on the device name, and pressing the gear icon in the upper right. Can I get your affiliate link A fan might be generating a blanket of white noise. Notice that the wave is actually quite flat. Youll never have to worry again about whether or not you left the kitchen lights on. A dog might be barking. The first method of silencing most voice assistant devices is via the manual, physical button. I will check the skills and routines also as someone suggested. Recent news reports in the last week revealed that Amazon has thousands of workers listening to Amazon Echo aka Alexa voice assistant recordings. "Alexa, this. Somehow, the processor on the Alexa device has to recognize that the wave form it's just heard corresponds to a command to wake up and listen. On my Android, it shows as gray when off and little white button to the left. Given all that, the most likely cause of an Alexa spontaneous reaction is a misinterpretation of sound. Luckily, most of them are straightforward, so you wont have to deal with any long, drawn-out procedures that leave your Alexa device out of commission for weeks on end. To turn on Brief Mode, open the Alexa app, tap More > Settings > Voice Responses. In essence, the project uses a little speaker that generates white noise that is stopped by a wake word that then allows your Alexa or Google Home command to be heard. I am currently combing through every app I may have ever signed into changing passwords, because if these pieces of shit get your email address they will write a bot that will try and log it in to every app that has Alexa API access, and my hunch is if you have Alexa API access you can trigger certain commands. There is reportedly a commercialized version shared in the Hackaday comments. It woke me out of a dead sleep and scared the living crap out of me. 6. If the Alexa Listening news bothers you, here is the Alexa Privacy setting instructions to turn that option off. Okay, back to the news that brought about this post. However, as is the case with most technology, it comes with its occasional quirks. Andy's coverage includes technology and entertainment, and he has a particular interest in all things streaming. I write about technology here on Forbes and elsewhere. Well Actually, by definition, that last may not, technically, be entirely true. From Alexa laughing & making scary comments to Siri siding with robots, these scary things Alexa & Siri say are cause for concern. Just say Alexa, set do not disturb before you go to bed. No doubt, there are glitches and errors that make some of this even more, well, creepy and spy-like. I did just find out the echos have a drop in feature which is creepy in itself and I winder who the heck can drop in even if it says you can keep it to just you. Youll have to install the skill, enter your credentials, and select the folders or songs in your iTunes library that you wish to play. Or how to get started with anAlexa smart home? This can be useful when youre doing a hands-on activity at homecooking, cleaning, showeringor hanging out with a large group of people who all want easy access to the music selection. I was reading in the bedroom last night when Alexa whispered do you want to hear a scary story then scary music started playing until I told her to stop. not the first time shes spontaneously started doing stuff.. ive been in another room across the house before (no alexa there) and she just randomly started playing music from an Amazon Music playlist ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HOUSE WITH NO ONE THERE (no i was not using Amazon Music at all at that moment).